Data Maps: Using Diagrams to Represent and Analyse Interview Data
Carmel M. Diezmann · 1999
Qualitative data collection and analysis have become increasingly important in educational research. This paper discusses the representation and analysis of qualitative data using data maps. The data were collected in interviews with children engaged in mathematical problem solving. Data maps are diagrams that provide wholistic displays of data and are produced using drawing software. There are three advantages in using data maps. First, data maps provide an overview of video, audio or text-based data and can facilitate the identification of critical points or events in an interview. This advantage also enables the selection of representative rather than ad hoc excerpts of data in reporting. Second, the wholistic presentation of data maps supports visual reasoning, which is distinct from the sequential reasoning used with transcripts. Thus, a diagrammatic representation of the data provides an additional opportunity to identify patterns and themes in the data. Third, emerging questions can be explored by cutting and pasting existing data maps and creating new maps. These latter maps address the interactive assumption of qualitative analysis. This paper argues that a visual approach to data representation can enhance analysis and reporting. Through visual representation and reasoning, data maps provide insights that cannot readily be identified through non-visual analysis. Additionally, data maps provide the global context for the rich, thick descriptions that commonly appear in qualitative reports but that represent inherently local or subjective views of the data set.