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Table 2 Procedures for thematic analysis

From: The importance of English in primary school education in China: perceptions of students

Procedures

Description of the process

1. Familiarising yourself with your data

Transcribing data, reading and re-reading the data, noting down initial ideas.

2. Generating initial codes

Coding interesting features of the data in a systematic fashion across the entire data set, collating data relevant to each code.

3. Searching for themes

Collating codes into potential themes, gathering all data relevant to each potential theme.

4. Reviewing themes

Checking if the themes work in relation to the coded extracts (each student group) and the entire data set (all groups of students; six groups), generating a thematic ‘map’ of the analysis.

5. Defining and naming themes

Ongoing analysis to refine the specifics of each theme, and the overall story the analysis tells, generating clear definitions and names for each theme.

6. Producing the report

The final opportunity for analysis. Selection of vivid, compelling extract examples, final analysis of selected extracts, relating back of the analysis to the research question and literature, producing a scholarly report of the analysis.