Q: I am confused about making themes in my qualitative research. I am thinking the statement of the problem are my themes. Please let me know further

Detailed Question -

The statement of the problems are my themes yet my teacher told me it cannot be my themes.

1 Answer to this question
Answer:

This is a tough question, as there is no unified definition of a 'theme'. In a qualitative/thematic study, "themes" are broad categories or ideas under which the common patterns you observe from your qualitative data analysis can be placed. It is not the research question itself. For example, your research question could be: "How do people perceive the COVID-19 pandemic?". Based on your qualitative analysis, you could find several themes under which people's opinion on COVID-19 falls- e.g. "fear", "uncertainty", "frustration", "information overload", "misinformation", "work-life balance", etc. These are your "themes", which allow you to sort the qualitative information into common ideas that can broadly answer your problem statement.

We hope this was helpful! We wish you good luck with your research.