A Pragmatic View of Thematic Analysis

Ethnographic interviews have become a commonly used qualitat ive methodology for collecting data (Aronson, 1992). Once the information is gathered, res earchers are faced with the decision on how to analyze the data. There are many ways to anal yze informants' talk about their experiences (Mahrer, 1988; Spradley, 1979; Taylor Leininger, 1985; Taylor & Board, 1984), there is insufficient literature that outlines the pragmatic process of thematic analysis. This article attempts to outline the procedure for perform ing a thematic analysis.