'Hello from the other side'. Listening to data, slow science and the quest for validity in qualitative content analysis processes

Abstract

This paper explores examples used by the author in a pedagogical, higher education context as a way to discuss strategies of enhancing validity in qualitative content analysis. ‘Listening to data’ is presented as a strategy that can uncover ‘hidden truths’ and soundness in research, specifically when engaging in a qualitative content analysis of transcripts of oral interviews. To listen to data is about giving it sufficient time and to be attentive to the data both inside and outside. Listening to the data inside entails looking at utterances and their structure, as well as attending to the rhythms and sequences of the speech. Listening to the data outside refers to how data echoes and resonates in sensory images through which the readers are transported by way of colours, sounds, smells, gestures, and emotions. While ‘listening to data’ might appear to be a passive and asynchronous exercise between the speaker (there/then) and the listener (here/now), by using this strategy the researcher can dialogue with the data and hear surprising, revealing, and unexpected voices from that ‘other side’.