Reflection on WGTD21
Today I had the fortune to attend the inaugural world Grounded Theory Webinar: Europe where leading proponents of the various forms of GT presented their ideas and thinking with the aim to see a way forward for the methodology. It was very insightful listening to speakers and panellists from USA, Europe and. Vivian Martin introduced the day from USA, with Cathy Urquhart acting as chair. I was particularly interested to hear Barry Gibson’s presentation of Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT), and despite the subtle differences between the various approaches of Classic GT, Straussian GT, Strauss-Corbin GT and Constructivist GT, it was clear that there were many common areas, the differences in my opinion were differences that accommodated a best fit to the presenting research question. This latter view is just my own and may not be shared by everyone – and in fact- I would be surprised if it was. Of particular interest was the focus on meaning in CGT, leading me to pose questions in my thinking of How is role identity constructed? I need to make sure that I consider different theoretical perspectives in my write up, and make sure that I reflect the mutual creation of knowledge, ensuring that the voices of my participants are heard
I have not included situational analysis as I see this as a tool to aid in analysis, and after listening to today’s presentation of this by Adele Clarke and Carrie Friese I have realised that I may be actually using this in a way already as I seek to determine links between burgeoning codes and categories.
As such I will seek out articles by Clarke for a much fuller and better understanding of this, already I can see the potential depth that this can add to my use of CGT, comparing potential contexts of patient, physiotherapist, prescriber, non-prescriber, thought leader, this has left me with much food for thought.
Reassuringly, I was able to follow the panellists presentations and could already see where my study was meeting the requirements of a project that claims to be using CGT. I was surprised to see how closer to classic GT my approach is in some ways, and it was really good to see how classic GT is also open to change and evolution, where sometimes it has been presented in literature as a fixed point in time.
photo by Ed Robertson (Unsplash)