Qualitative Content Analysis Within Empirical Educational Research. Possible Applications in a Secondary Longitudinal Study for the Identification of Reorganization Patterns of School Organizations

Abstract

Qualitative school case studies have for years played an increasing role in the area of empirical education research. In this context, qualitative content analysis has established itself as the main analytical procedure. In this article, we use the example of the interview study "Data-Based School Development Processes for the Reorganization of School" to explain the contribution qualitative content analysis can make in the evaluation of longitudinal interview data (n=351) for the identification of reorganization patterns in school organizations (28 schools). Here, the coding frame constitutes the basis for structuring each (school) case study as a case summary or, rather, analysis and typification. It is assumed that this procedure takes both the comparability (through the method-intrinsic focus on the systematization of the material) as well as the analytical scope through the structured procedure into account. From our perspective, this is possible, if our own further development of qualitative content analysis based on KUCKARTZ (2016), are taken into account. In this article, we show the advantages of this procedure as a method for rule-based interpretative analysis of longitudinal data, while also highlighting the limitations (e.g., in the interpretation) within the study design as presented here.