Summary

Grounded theory strategies enable researchers to build successive levels of abstraction that culminate in a theoretical analysis of their data. Through engaging in categorizing and conceptualizing data, grounded theorists have the tools to make explicit actions, meanings, and processes that otherwise would remain implicit. The method contains strategies that lead researchers to check and refine their emerging categories as well as establish relationships between categories. Grounded theory simultaneously gives researchers tools for making qualitative research manageable and for advancing their theoretical analyses.

As you may have discerned, grounded theory strategies offer rich possibilities for development in educational and social research because of their suitability for studying a wide range of research problems at varied levels of analysis. Although researchers typically have adopted the grounded theory approach to study individuals and interactional settings, it may be used to research organizations, cultures, and policies. Note that Thornberg's current work (2011) speaks to professional and organizational cultures that teachers and other professionals in schools face. Grounded theory is particularly useful for moving across classrooms and schools, as Thornberg's studies of school rules and implicit norms in everyday school life exemplify (see, for example, Thornberg, 2007, 2008a, 2008b, 2009, 2010b). Researchers can build on grounded theory strategies to broaden the specific contributions of grounded theory to qualitative educational research and more generally to qualitative inquiry across disciplines and professions.