Reverse Coding: a Proposed Alternative Methodology for Identifying Evidentiary Warrants

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper aims to critique approaches to qualitative coding that carry a bottom-up or inductive thinking. Despite the wide contributions of this epistemology to the social sciences, this paper contends that contemporary research and methodological debates have inadequately explored different epistemologies for coding. As such, this paper proposes and explores the concept of ‘reverse coding.’ In applying reverse coding to ethnographic data collected from observations of a multicultural language classroom, I demonstrate that reverse coding can explore intuitions or ‘hunches’ generated from the data that may not be supported by conventional qualitative coding. By finding such support through reverse coding, or the process of identifying preliminary propositions first and its constituent features afterward, this paper asserts that research employing multiple approaches to coding can extend its range of analysis to generate more robust findings.