Gareth Terry (now at Massey University) designed a very useful tool for teaching (and learning) thematic analysis, The Thematic Pantry. Developed in collaboration with the the Good Health Design team at AUT, The Thematic Pantry offers an interactive and engaging teaching tool built out of Gareth’s expertise and knowledge of Thematic Analysis. It has been designed to simplify the process of Thematic Analysis through the analogy of preparing a meal, in order to give a ‘taste’ of the process rather than a comprehensive understanding of the method.
The tool translates the process of Thematic Analysis into an easy to understand medium using dice to represent ingredients (data) and guides players through steps to group these together into potential meals (themes). By shifting the academic language of thematic analysis towards the universal experience of preparing food and meals, new researchers can get a taste of the process and gain a foundational understanding of thematic analysis that can be applied with confidence to their own research.
The tool can be used as part of a facilitated class experience or tutorials with details about each phase of Thematic Analysis incorporated via brief lectures to help embed some of the formal information about Thematic Analysis. It takes players through the phases of the Braun-Clarke Thematic Analysis, where data is represented as ‘ingredients’ and themes are represented as ‘dishes’. The tactility of the Thematic Pantry encourages players to move ingredients around, emphasising the multiplicity in the way data can be coded and grouped. The universal language of food makes for an accessible and fun activity that reframes Thematic Analysis.
You can purchase the thematic pantry through the Good Health Design website – there’s a discount code for orders of four or more sets.
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