Asynchronous Task

CODING AND QUALITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS

Before starting this task, read first this article by Erlingsson and Brysiewicz (2017)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/sdfe/reader/pii/S2211419X17300423/pdf. The article is free and
open access. Do not worry that this is about emergency medicine! What is important is to follow
through the steps that the authors are suggesting on how to conduct qualitative content
analysis.

In this task, you are asked to practice your interview coding skills. An interview was conducted
with “Ms. D,” a female, fifth-grade, veteran elementary school classroom teacher in preparation
for an action research project on school bullying. The research team interviewed fourth- and
fifth-grade teachers at a lower middle-class suburban school site to learn about forms of
oppression they saw and heard most often among their children.

As a coding and analysis exercise, review the transcript excerpt several times to become
acquainted with the contents. Start coding and group your codes into categories. Come up with
at least 2 categories with three codes each. Fill out the table in the final page of this worksheet.
Also compose an analytic memo that brainstorms the types of strategies that might be taken by
an action research team to lessen the amount of child oppression in a school setting.

***

I: How do children in your classroom oppress each other?

MS. D: Well, they call each other names.

I: Like, what kinds of names?

MS. D: Oh, we’ve got a little girl in here, she looks different and she acts different, so
they’ll make up some name that they call her. They, um, it’s the same kid, it seems like
every year there’s one kid that gets picked on more than somebody else, because
they’re different, because they might look different, they might act different. Say, for
instance, she will say something or she gets very excited about something, they’ll tell
her to “Sit down,” “Be quiet,” “Stop doing this,” they’re like on her case all the time. Then
you’ve got another kid in here who, well he loses control of himself, and so he blurts
stuff out or yells out, and the kids will turn around and yell back at him. And out on the
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playground they do tend to sometimes get pushy-shovy kinda stuff. Like with her
[pointing to a desk] I’ve watched them actually walk by this little girl and purposely bump
into her or something like that, but then even though you’re watching them, the kid’ll turn
around and say, “Well, I didn’t do that” after you confront him. And it’s not everybody,
it’s just a few, and it’s a few that have behavior problems that seek attention, and they
don’t know how to get attention any other way besides a negative way.

I: How do the students deal with these conflicts?

MS. D: They come to me right away to tell me, so then I have to deal with it. I’ve told
them to do it that way. I don’t want them taking means into their own hands, ’cause if
they do then they’re causing more problems than, because they tend to get physical or
it’s a taunting kind of thing that will take place all over the place. So if they come to me
right away then I can deal with just the two people it involves and that way it doesn’t
tend to get blown out of proportion. It stays right there rather than getting other kids
involved in the situation.

I: What kinds of oppressions might your students deal with in their home environment?

MS. D: Oh, jeez. There’s some sad cases here. There’s this one boy who seeks
attention because his mother is a drunken alcoholic. The mom says he’s her best buddy
and works hard to get him what he wants. He’s had to meet with the school counselor.
There was another girl who was taken away from a bad family situation in Philadelphia
because of physical and verbal abuse, her mother was into witchcraft. She moved to
live with some relatives here but the home situation here isn’t safe either, so the police
had to be called in. But she seems to be settling in now. Her mom’s moved down here
but the girl’s slowly evolving into one of the neighborhood kids. She’s the one they pick
on a lot because she is a little different, but she’s had different experiences than a lot of
kids, too.

I: What kinds of differences do kids tend to target?

MS. D: With this one student the kids seem to zero in because she did look different,
and she …

I: Clothing-wise?

MS. D: No, just physically, she, she just, and she acted kind of strange, she would just
rock back and forth in her chair, that this was a thing of the abuse, that kind of thing.
And one of the girls said, “Stop it, stop it!” and I would have to go over to her and just
put my hands on her, “Don’t do that now,” that kind of thing, and we had to have her
meet with the school nurse. And she’s the type of kid who thinks she knows everything,
so that was another thing that bugged the kids, that she would, and yet she does know
a lot, but they just didn’t like it, that it was her. You know, once they had this idea that
something’s wrong with them, or they don’t like them, then when they start to interact
with the kids and the kids kind of, they’re not accepting. But most of the other kids in this
room have been together for years, so she’s brand new, the other kid with problems is
brand new, and so it’s the ones, they’re kind of not fitting in because they weren’t with
this group as they moved on through school.

I: Like a newcomer?

MS. D: Uh-huh, I think it is like a newcomer thing. It’s basically the new ones. These two
new ones were pretty outgoing and were put down by the others, but another newcomer
moved quietly and she was easily accepted because she didn’t stand out. There’s
another boy who’s obnoxious and the class gets upset with him. The kids pick up on
attitude. Their whole thing is attention: how can I get attention and bring it to myself?
Acting goofy or silly is a big thing, and some of the kids’ll say, “Oh, stop acting like that.”

****
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PRELIMINARY CODES AND CATEGORIES

Interviewee

Categories Codes Excerpts

Call each other names Classroom oppression Make up some name that
they call her.
Tell teacher right away Classroom oppression They come to me right
away to tell me.
Seeks attention Home oppression There’s this one boy who
seeks attention because his
mother is a drunken
alcoholic
Physical and verbal abuse Home oppression There was another girl who
was taken away from a bad
family situation in
Philadelphia because of
physical and verbal abuse.

Analytic memo

Oppression occurs in the classroom as well as in the family. In school, pupils must directly
inform their teacher of the incident in order to calm down and ensure that nothing worsens. In
their own families, students faced tyranny.