Research Methods in Education 6th Edition

1. GROUNDED THEORY
© LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE
MANION & KEITH MORRISON

2. STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER
• The tools of grounded theory
• Developing grounded theory
• Evaluating grounded theory
• Preparing to work in grounded theory

3. GROUNDED THEORY
• Concerns theory generation.
• More inductive than content analysis.
• Theory is derived inductively from the analysis
and study of, and reflection on, the
phenomena under scrutiny.
• Grounded theory is a set of relationships
amongst data and categories that proposes a
plausible and reasonable explanation of the
phenomenon under study.
• It is a method or set of procedures for the
generation of theory or for the production of a
certain kind of knowledge.

4. GROUNDED THEORY
• Theory is emergent rather than predefined
and tested;
• Theory emerges from the data rather than vice
versa;
• Theory generation is a consequence of, and
partner to, systematic data collection and
analysis;
• Patterns and theories are implicit in data,
waiting to be discovered;
• Grounded theory is both inductive and
deductive, it is iterative and close to the data
that give rise to it.

5. GROUNDED THEORY
• Grounded theory includes context.
• Grounded theory does not force data to fit with
a predetermined theory.
• Grounded theory builds rather than tests
theory.
• Grounded theory starts with data.

6. ABILITIES REQUIRED OF THE
RESEARCHER IN GROUNDED THEORY
• Tolerance and openness to data and what is
emerging;
• Tolerance of confusion and regression
• Resistance to premature formulation of theory;
• Ability to pay close attention to data;
• Willingness to engage in the process of theory
generation rather than theory testing; Ability to
work with emergent categories rather than
preconceived or received categories.

7. THE TOOLS OF GROUNDED THEORY
• Theoretical sampling
• Coding
• Constant comparison
• Identification of the core variable(s)
• Saturation

8. DEVELOPING GROUNDED THEORY
Evaluating the grounded theory:
• The closeness of the fit between the theory
and the data;
• How readily understandable the theory is by
the lay persons working in the field;
• The ability of the theory to be general to many
daily situations in the substantive area;
• The theory must allow the person who uses it
to have some control over the structure and
process of daily situations to make its
application worth trying.

9. CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING THE
GROUNDED THEORY
• How adequately and powerfully the theory
accounts for the main concerns of the data;
• The relevance and utility of the theory for the
participants;
• The closeness of the fit of the theory to the
data and phenomenon being studied,
• Under what conditions the theory holds true;
• The fit of the axial coding to the categories and
codes;
• The ability of the theory to embrace negative
and discrepant cases;

10. CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING THE
GROUNDED THEORY
• The fit of the theory to literature;
• How the original sample was selected, and
what basis;
• The major categories that emerged;
• The events, incidents, actions, and indicators of
the main categories;
• The basis of the categories in the theoretical
sampling procedures (and their
representativeness);
• Processes in, and grounds for, identifying, the
core category .

11. CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING THE
GROUNDED THEORY
• The hypotheses pertaining to conceptual
relations among categories, and the grounds on
which they were formulated and tested;
• Accounting for discrepant cases and their effects
on the hypothesis;
• Conceptual linkages between concepts and
categories;
• Variations in the theory and their interpretations;
• Change or movement taken into account in the
development of the theory;

12. CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING THE
GROUNDED THEORY
• The reliability, validity and credibility of the data
• The adequacy of the research process;
• The empirical grounding of the research
findings;
• The sampling procedures;
• The major categories that emerged;
• The adequacy of the evidence base for the
categories that emerged;
• The adequacy of the basis in the categories
that led to the theoretical sampling;

13. CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING THE
GROUNDED THEORY
• The formulation and testing of hypotheses and
their relationship to the conceptual relations
amongst the categories;
• The adequacy of the way in which discrepant
data were handled;
• The adequacy of the basis on which the core
category was selected;
• The generation of the concepts;
• The extent to which the concepts are
systematically related;

14. CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING THE
GROUNDED THEORY
• The number and strength of the linkages
between categories, and their conceptual
density, leading to their explanatory power;
• The extent of variation that is built into the
theory;
• The extent to which the explanations take
account of the broader conditions that affect
the phenomenon being studied;
• The account taken of emergent processes over
time in the research;
• The significance of the theoretical findings.

15. PREPARING TO WORK IN GROUNDED
THEORY
• Ability to tolerate uncertainty, confusion and
setbacks;
• Ability to avoid premature formulation of the
theory;
• Ability to enable the theory to emerge through
constant comparison;
• Openness to what is emerging;
• Ability not to force data to fit a theory but,
rather, to ensure that data and theory fit
together in an unstrained manner.