The Coding Process: Finding Symbolic and Salient Descriptors

The process of coding is not a simple one. When I received the cumulative and qualitative data from our elite school in Jordan, I felt greatly overwhelmed. Even after the initial explanation and walkthrough of coding data, I could not help but feel as though there was simply too much data to be condensed into simple codes.

Initially, we divided up the work among our group and began picking away at the pile of data—student interviews, teacher interviews, images, and more. However, as I began to code the student interviews, I found it difficult to develop the codes themselves. I felt an avalanche of words and phrases tumbling through my mind, each code seeming well suited to the section of data I wanted to apply them to. I could not decide on the literal codes that would capture the various essences of the sentences, phrases, and passages. I discovered my inability to choose a code when I read and re-read a certain portion of a student interview that I had conducted myself. My friend from high school took her a year and a half off, choosing to spend time at the elite school in Jordan after her self-described “unexpected acceptance.” I asked her one question regarding the social groupings and interactions at the school in Jordan, curious if her answer would reinforce some of the descriptions of the social scene in other student interviews. Her answer noted a mix of identities and cultural expectations; however, in her opinion, these potential divides did not separate social groups but forced social groups to become more of a “mixed bag.” This answer did reinforce a similar description in another student interview. I began to think of different codes that could encompass all of the identities described and interests that intermingled through these diverse friend groups.

I continued to pressure myself to find a code that could portray the reasoning behind these multifaceted social groups. The difficulty I found was that the codes like “social formations,” “social groupings,” and “multicultural connections” did not seem to distinguish these unique social cohorts from simple social pairings rooted in similar interests or hobbies. However, the process began to become an unnecessarily heavy burden and prevented me from continuing coding. Ultimately, I forced myself to look up how to code qualitative data. Immediately, I was blown away by the simplicity of the codes. Some of the codes pulled directly from the sentences or phrases while other’s captured a clear, overarching description of the specific piece of data. I found that I was drastically overthinking the entire process. I recognized that the codes were not supposed to give an in-depth explanation of the purpose behind the pieces of data they represent. The sheer amount of data combined with the number of necessary codes in my head made the coding process seem like a painstakingly slow and grueling activity. Yet, my own indecision and tentativeness was the real factor peeling away time from my other work. I settled on “mixed social circles”—a direct quote from her description of the complex social process. After deciding on this code and becoming more familiar with the process, I found I could assign a code exponentially quicker than I had before.

As I move forward through the process of coding and exploring the sizeable set of data, I know that I cannot overthink the process. Now, I know the most important parts of coding are trusting my intuition and communicating with my group to establish uniform codes that will eventually be consolidated into themes. If I were to think as long about every code as I did this one, the process really would never end