I am working on my prospectus and am starting to overthink/doubt my alignment. I had planned on using previous grounded theory as my conceptual framework for my proposed qualitative study. Can I do that or should I change my study to a quantitative one? Which I don't know if I want to do or not. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Kristi - yes you could use it as a conceptual framework. However, it will not have been tested and it may not even be well cited etc. What if the theory is flawed or contestable? That might be where your hesitation comes from. You could seek to test the grounded theory quantitatively - if that would be of any use or benefit to the topic area.
Você deve ter clareza de seu objeto de pesquisa; seus objetivos devem estar claros, primeiro, para você; depois, a escolha da metodologia virá na sequência.
In general, there is a principle in Grounded Theory that you should not start with preconceptions. Of course that creates a paradox, where one should not use previous results from GT as a basis for building further theories.
One possibility to emphasize the portions of your work that are exploratory, rather than seeking to "confirm" existing theory.
The sole focus of GT is not to develop entirely new theory. Strauss and Corbin (1998) elaborate that initially data should be guiding theoretical development but if existing theories appropriately explain data, these may be elaborated and modified as data are meticulously played against them (p. 159)
- Badges
- Science method