OrientationObservationIn-depth interviewsDocument analysis and semiologyConversation and discourse analysisSecondary Data
SurveysExperimentsEthicsResearch outcomes
Conclusion
Overview of grounded theory approach, adapted fromDick (2005).
Grounded theory begins with a research situation. Within that situation, your task as researcher is to identify what is happening and how the players manage their roles.
• You do this through observation, conversation and interview. After each bout of data collection you note down the key issues: this is "note-taking".
• Constant comparison is the heart of the process. At first you compare one set of data to another set (observations or interviews). The aim is to identify categories (roughly equivalent to themes or variables) and their properties (in effect their sub-categories).
• As you code, certain theoretical propositions will occur to you. These may be about links between categories, or about a core category: a category that appears central to the study.
• As the categories and properties emerge, they (and their links to the core category) provide the theory. You write yourself notes about the relationships you observe emerging (as you'll forget them later): this is "memoing".
• As the data collection and coding proceeds the codes and the memos accumulate.
• You add to your sample through theoretical sampling, searching for different properties.
• When you no longer add to your core category and its linked categories or their properties your concepts are said to be "saturated".
• At this point you start sorting. You group your memos, like with like, and sequence them in whatever order will make your theory clearest.
• The literature is accessed as it becomes relevant. It is not given special treatment.
