Making Sense of the Model: Interpreting Epistemic Networks and their Projection Space

Unified methods enable iteration and dialogue between qualitative data and their quantified form; Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) is a common tool for modeling such data. Little guidance is available on how to interpret ENA models; we aim to contribute to filling this lacuna. We present approaches to interpreting ENA graphs (node size, connection strength, node proximity, etc.) and the space into which they are projected (plotted point locations, dimensions, etc.). These approaches are then elaborated with an example from an empirical study and contextualized via discussing their limitations and implications.