Interviews for KidsFirst provincial evaluation wrapping up

As of November 2009, our KidsFirst qualitative evaluation team members are finishing the last of their interviews and focus groups with the KidsFirst sites. We have been keeping our transcriptionists very busy, and are starting to get a handle on Atlas ti, the software we will use for analyzing the mountains of data we've collected. To analyze the data, we will be "coding" it - labelling ideas that have come up in our discussions, and comparing them, to come up with "themes". Qualitative researcher John Siedel has described this analysis as "a symphony based on three notes: Noticing, Collecting, and Thinking about interesting things." (Seidel, 1998). The rich, thick data we have to work with is full of interesting things that will keep our researchers busy for the next few months.  As findings emerge, we hope to be able to share them with you. Stay tuned!  

~ Fleur Macqueen Smith for the Qualitative Evaluation team