ABSTRACT
A great advantage of having a well-developed theoretical framework before one begins analyzing data and writing up a research project is the direction and focus theory can give to these processes. To understand how this is so, imagine the collection and analysis of data for a study without an explicit theoretical perspective-for example, a study of the interactions among a teacher and students in a primary-level classroom. Without the directive focus of a theoretical framework, what data would need to be collected? Everything? But, what would constitute “everything” in this case? Would it include a written transcript of everything the teacher and students said to each other? Or, would it require audio capture of voices as well, to record tone, timing, pitch, accent, and the like? What of gestures? Perhaps video capture would also be needed. And, what of the conversations students had with each other, simultaneous with the teacher’s talk? What of announcements over the school intercom? What of the language of written texts used during interactions, or of visual images, or other sounds? And, once “everything” had been collected, where and how would the analysis begin? How would a researcher begin to organize the data, to know what likely patterns to look for, and to recognize patterns that were unlikely? What would determine what was considered “likely” or “unlikely?” What would constitute a pattern? For that matter, where would the very idea of looking for “patterns” come from?
