SORTING AND CODING DATA

This chapter details the process of sorting and coding information within the ethnographic record that is produced during the course of a research project. Good ethnographic findings and presentations emerge from the ethnographic record and depend on the researcher carefully organizing and evaluating the information that they have collected. In this process, the researcher is looking to identify key themes and questions and may work from especially important moments in the research process that reveal especially important findings or dynamics for analysis. Ethnographers should be prepared for the messiness of the ethnographic record that reflects the complex lives of those people involved in the project.