Procedures for conducting grounded theory research

What perspective and approach to take?

First, think about if a theory or an approach is suited to study the research problem.

In our case, we take the grounded theory approach to study vaccination expectations of our sampled universities in response to emergent situations in the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal is to form an explanation of the causes and consequences of various vaccination expectations.

Following Creswell (2007, p. 64-67), the procedures for conducting grounded theory research is illustrated below.

Theoretical sampling

In a grounded theory approach, a group of homogeneous sample is theoretically located to help the researcher form the theory. This is called theoretical sampling.

We explained our sampling approach in the section Methodology.

Data collection

Data collection evolves in a “zigzag” process: out to the field to gather information, into the office to analyze the data, back to the field to gather more information, into the office, and so forth.

The focus is on understanding how individuals experience the process and identifying the steps in the process.

The goal is to gather enough information to fully elaborate a theory, when the categories of information become saturated.

Coding and analysis

We begin with close reading of texts and follow Deterding and Waters (2021) and Creswell (2007, p. 148-158, 160-163) to code and analyze our documents in this workshop.

The core elements of qualitative data analysis is “coding the data, combining the codes into broader categories or themes, and displaying and making comparisons in the data graphs, tables, and charts” (Creswell, 2007, p. 148).

What to look for in coding? We may look for processes, actions, or interactions. We may also look for what is excluded, disruptions and contradictions in the texts, or metaphors (Creswell, 2007, p.154).

Open coding

We begin with open coding to form major categories of information about the phenomenon being studied. The goal of coding is to reduce the data into themes and label those themes.

Axial coding

Next, researchers find several subcategories to focus on around the core phenomenon.

The types of categories identified around the core phenomenon can be causal conditions (what factors caused the core phenomenon), strategies (actions taken in response to the core phenomenon), contextual and intervening conditions (broad and specific situational factors that influence the strategies), and consequences (outcomes from using the strategies).

Selective coding

The final step is selective coding to articulate a theory. Researchers connect the categories and develop hypotheses on relationships among the categories.

Memoing

During coding, researchers may write down ideas about evolving theory throughout the process of open, axial, and selective coding.

Evaluation

Strauss and Corbin (1990) identified seven criteria to judge the quality of a grounded theory study (Creswell, 2007, p. 216).

• How was the original sample selected? On what grounds?
• What major categories emerged?
• What were some of the events, incidents, actions, and so on (as indicators) that pointed to some of these major categories?
• On the basis of what categories did theoretical sampling proceed? Guide data collection? Was it representative of the categories?
• What were some of the hypotheses pertaining to conceptual relations (that is, among categories), and on what grounds were they formulated and tested?
• Were there instances when hypotheses did not hold up against what was actually seen? How were these discrepancies accounted for? How did they affect the hypotheses?
• How and why was the core category selected (sudden, gradual, difficult, easy)? On what grounds?

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

What’s next?

The theory generated from the above process may be tested later with quantitative data to determine if it can be generalized to a population.

Alternatively, the study may end at this point with the generation of a theory as the goal of the research.

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