Methods educators who include qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) in their teaching see the software as an opportunity to bring authentic experiences of analytic practice into classrooms. However, we currently lack a shared language for outlining and understanding what this analytic practice could or should entail. By expanding Silver and Woolf’s 5-Level QDAS® pedagogy, I introduce a theoretical framework of analytic practice with QDAS designed for methods educators to reflect on their curricula, and for academic leaders and administrators to reflect on their institutions’ overall educational ecologies regarding qualitative methods. Further, I illustrate how barriers to integrating QDAS reflect broader issues in qualitative methods education, specifically regarding analysis training and apprenticeship. Given these barriers, I suggest that discussions of the positive or negative impacts of QDAS should focus less on the users and the software itself, and instead more on the way we teach, or fail to teach the practice of qualitative analysis.

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Land-grant Extension institutions face increasing expectations to use data to communicate value and drive program and organizational development. In this article, we introduce the University of Wisconsin–Extension Data Jam Initiative, an integrated qualitative software, methods, and data analysis curriculum. The Data Jam Initiative is an evaluation capacity building framework for collaborative, mentorship-based analysis sessions across an institution and across disciplines. Through sharing exemplar applications of this curriculum, we illustrate how the Data Jam Initiative prepares Extension institutions for using qualitative data in service of communication to stakeholders, program development, and organizational growth.

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