Diagram from page 132 of Gray, C, & Malins, J. (2007) Visualizing Research: A Guide to the Research Process in Art and Design, Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon, Oxon. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [14 November 2023].
Interpreting the map: methods of evaluation and analysis
Visualizing Research: A Guide to the Research Process in Art and Design
“Analysis is not about adhering to any one correct approach or set of right techniques; it is imaginative, artful, flexible and reflexive. It should also be methodical, scholarly, and intellectually rigorous. (Coffey and Atkinson, 1996, p. 10)”
Validity and reliability: towards research quality
“validity and reliability. These concepts (and others, as we shall see later) are concerned with establishing research quality”
“In scientific methodologies, objectivity, validity, reliability and replicatability are the cornerstones of research quality”
“Spectacles and sieves: criteria”
More related to looking at the outcomes themselves:
“• to ‘evaluate’ is to ascertain the value of something and to judge or assess its worth;
• to ‘analyse’ is to examine something in detail in order to discover its meaning.”
“However, nothing can be evaluated or analysed without criteria”
“For example, what makes ‘good’ design could be articulated in
relation to three key criteria: effectiveness, efficiency, economy. These, in turn, could be ‘unpacked’ to provide more focused criteria, for example effectiveness in relation to context and aesthetics; efficiency in terms of function and use; economy in terms of cost and use of materials.”
“It is essential that the criteria you develop relate to the aim and
objectives of the research.”
“Criteria are like spectacles and sieves”
“they are the means by which we focus, capture and distil value and meaning. Different spectacle lenses allow us to see in various ways – to see some things whilst not being distracted by others”
“Different meshes in sieves allow us to capture some things while discarding others, for example in panning for gold. Conversely, paper coffee filters capture the unpalatable grounds leaving us with the essential distilled liquid.”
“These different lenses, meshes, filters are metaphors for the sets of criteria by which we evaluate, analyse and make sense of research outcomes”
I used content analysis to look at the images of cultural identity that the students provided in order to “search for pattern and meaning” (Collier, 2004)
Van Leeuwen, T., Jewitt, C. & Collier, M. (Eds). ‘Approaches to Analysis in Visual Anthropology’. The Handbook of Visual Analysis. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857020062.n3 (Accessed 2 January 2025).
Steps in Thematic analysis
– Familiarisation (note initial impressions)
– Coding: Assign descriptive codes (significant or recurring, relating to potential themes
– Theme generation: Group similar codes together to identify broader themes
– Theme refinement: Review and refine themes, consider relationships between themes
– Interpretation: Analyse the identified themes in the context of the research question, considering the social, cultural and historic background of the images
Gray, C, & Malins, J (2007). Visualizing Research: A Guide to the Research Process in Art and Design. Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon, Oxon. Available at: ProQuest Ebook Central. (Accessed: 14 November 2023).