1st Edition
The Routledge International Handbook of Constructivist Grounded Theory in Educational Research
The Routledge International Handbook of Constructivist Grounded Theory in Educational Research provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art in Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) methodology, including core grounded theory tenets and processes as well as constructivist ‘adaptations.’ It features CGT research from across the education sector, including studies based in primary schooling, post-primary (second-level) schooling, and higher education.
Across five parts and twenty chapters, the book makes explicit how CGT techniques and processes were implemented in the field, the way(s) in which challenges were navigated, and how educational researchers aligned their research processes to constructivist principles. It offers exemplars of good practice by educational researchers from Australia, England, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The handbook synthesises learning from the experiences of CGT researchers in education to establish a framework of guidance for early career and more experienced researchers. Additionally, it directly interrogates and considers how to address challenges in the implementation of high-quality CGT and looks to the future of the methodology in educational research.
This handbook provides guidance and education-specific examples to doctoral students and researchers who wish to use, or are using, CGT in educational research. It will also be of significant interest to qualitative researchers in other disciplines like Sociology, Psychology and Nursing.
Part 1: Introduction
1: Grounded Theory and Constructivist Grounded Theory: History and Development
Elaine Keane and Robert Thornberg
2: Grounded Theory and Constructivist Grounded Theory in Educational Research
Elaine Keane and Robert Thornberg
Part 2: Constructivist Grounded Theory Studies with Children and Young People in Schools
3. A Constructivist Grounded Theory Approach to the School Experiences of Children Living at Refuges for Abused Women: Methodological Challenges and Possibilities
Sabreen Selvik
4. Using Constructivist Grounded Theory in a Study of the Career Aspirations of Children from Diverse Backgrounds in Ireland
Kaitlin Kaufman and Elaine Keane
5. “At this school, you can't do nuthin’!” Using Constructivist Grounded Theory to Understand the Failure of Zero-tolerance Discipline in Urban Education
Anne Scheer
6. Designing Interview Studies on School Bullying Using a Constructivist Grounded Theory Approach
Camilla Forsberg
7. Doing Constructivist Grounded Theory Research with Ethnographic Fieldwork to Understand Schoolchildren’s Involvement in School Bullying
Robert Thornberg
Part 3: Constructivist Grounded Theory Studies with Teachers and Parents
8. Whose Main Concern? Constructivist Grounded Theory as a Way of Gaining ‘Closeness’ to What is Important to Participants in a Study of Swedish School-age Educare
Helene Elvstrand and Lina Lago
9. Employing Visual Methods in Constructivist Grounded Theory Research about Teacher Attrition in Primary Schools in England
Jenna Bradford
10. Using Constructivist Grounded Theory to Understand the Experiences of Early Career Teachers Teaching Students with Diverse Learning Needs in Australia
Tracey L. Chamlin
11. Inside Out: Researcher Positionality as Insider and Outsider and Impact on the Co-construction of Data in a Constructivist Grounded Theory Study about Teachers’ Understandings of Intercultural Education in Ireland
Greg Harris and Elaine Keane
12. Data Analysis in a Constructivist Grounded Theory Study of Remote Teachers in Australia Working with Students Impacted by Complex Childhood Trauma
Meegan Brown, Judith Howard, and Kerryann Walsh
13. Stepping into an Unfamiliar Field: An Account of Constructing a Grounded Theory in a Study with Parents in the United Kingdom about Home and Alternative Education
Carrie Adamson
Part 4: Constructivist Grounded Theory Studies in Higher Education
14. Tracing the Development of a Core Concept in a Constructivist Grounded Theory Study with Student Teachers from Working Class Backgrounds in Ireland: From ‘Performing Social Class’ to ‘Chameleoning to Fit in’
Elaine Keane
15. Theoretical Pluralism and Theoretical Agnosticism as Useful Principles when Studying Student Teachers’ Efforts to Cope with Emotionally Challenging Situations
Henrik Lindqvist
16. Navigating the Literature Review when Conducting a Constructivist Grounded Theory Study in of Internationalisation in Higher Education in Ireland
Ciarán Dunne
17. Developing a Theoretical Explanation of University Teaching Using Constructivist Grounded Theory
Karla I. Loya
18. Keeping the Constructivism in a Constructivist Grounded Theory: Data Collection, Writing, and Publishing as Analytical Processes in a Study of Interprofessional Education and Collaboration
Monica Bianchi, Giulietta Luul Balestra, Luca Ghirotto
Part 5: Good Practice, Interrogating Challenges, and Looking to the Future of Constructivist Grounded Theory in Educational Research
19. Synthesising Good Practice in Constructivist Grounded Theory Educational Research
Elaine Keane and Robert Thornberg
20. Interrogating and Addressing Challenges and Looking to the Future of Constructivist Grounded Theory in Educational Research
Elaine Keane and Robert Thornberg
Index
Biography
Elaine Keane is Associate Professor and Director of Doctoral Studies in the School of Education at the University of Galway, Ireland. Her research focuses on social class and education, widening participation in higher education and the professions, teacher diversity, and constructivist grounded theory (CGT) and she has published widely and has led national and international projects in these areas. She is Co-Editor of Irish Educational Studies, serves on the Editorial Board of Teaching in Higher Education, and is Convenor of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI) Special Interest Group on Teacher Diversity Research.
Robert Thornberg is Professor of Education at Linköping University, Sweden. He has been a member and the secretary of the Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA) and a member of the Educational Sciences Board at the Swedish Research Council. Robert is currently a Consulting Editor of Educational Psychology. His current research is on school bullying, especially with a focus on social and moral processes involved in bullying and bystander behaviours, including students’ perspectives, understanding, and experiences. Other research areas include social climate and relations in school, values education, and student teachers’ and medical students’ emotionally distressing educational situations.
Constructivist Grounded Theory, developed by the late Kathy Charmaz, is the most inclusive and up-to-date version of Grounded Theory research. Education is one of the most challenging and promising areas for doing Constructivist Grounded Theory research. This Handbook and the contributions to it are of excellent quality and most relevant for further developing the legacy of Kathy Charmaz and for demonstrating the potential of Constructivist Grounded Theory in the important field of education. I am very pleased to recommend this Handbook to qualitative researchers, and especially to those using constructivist grounded theory.
- Uwe Flick, Senior Professor of Qualitative Social and Education Research, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Elaine Keane and Robert Thornberg are to be congratulated for having assembled a wide-ranging and informative set of chapters exemplifying the ways in which Constructivist Grounded Theory can contribute to research in education. The Handbook will contribute to responses to the continual and growing demand for examples of the ways in which grounded theories can be developed using the constructivist form of GTM, and it is only fitting that the collection is dedicated to Kathy Charmaz.
- Antony Bryant, Professor of Informatics, Leeds Beckett University, UK
