- Grounded theory is a research tool that enables you to seek out and conceptualize the latent social patterns and structures of your area of interest through the process of constant comparison.
- Use an inductive approach where you make broad generalizations from specific obersrvations
- The generalizations will help suggest where to go next to collect data and which, more-focused, questions to ask

What is Grounded Theory?

Discourse Analysis is a form of quantitative data analysis that is based around the assumptions that all communication, whether written, spoken, signed, etc., has a goal and that we can analyze communication to find both the goal of that communication and how whether and how the goal is achieved is shaped by and shaping the socio-political context around it.

Discourse Analysis

Category construction focuses specifically on identifying, defining, and refining categories or themes that help make sense of complex qualitative data like interviews, field notes, or documents. Often this refining is iterative to narrow in on particular themes.

Category Construction

To code interviews for the Disabled Academics Study (DAS), the research team used grounded theory, discourse analysis, and category construction.

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Price's study consisted of two phases - an anonymous survey and then in-depth interviews with participants.

Design of the Study

Price notes that to achieve the values of accessibility and interdependence, Price and the research team drew on a research method Price conceived during her work on the book Mad at School which she called an interdependent qualitative research paradigm and the team drew on principles that Price outlined in her article "Disability Studies Methodology."

Foundations of Research Methods

Price, M. (2024). Crip Spacetime. Duke University Press.

Crip Spacetime

Bowen, Glenn A. 2016. "Grounded Theory and Sensitizing Concepts." International Journal of Qualitative Methods 5(3): 12-23. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690600500304.

Grounded Theory and Sensitizing Concepts

Merriam, Sharan. 2009. Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation, 3rd ed. Hoboken NJ: Jossey-Bass.

Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation

Saldana, Johnny. 2016. The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers

Price notes that multiple shifts occurred during the designing and conducting of the Disabled Academic Study: mainly widening the types of disabilities included and the types of academics included. 

Shifts in Designing the Study

The survey was created by Price along with Mark Salzer, who is a academic in the field of social and behavior sciences and psychology. After survey creation Stephanie Kerschbaum, an academic in the fields of rhetoric, composition, and disability, and Amber O'Shea, an academic in the field of educational psychology joined the team for analysis of the survey.

Individuals Involved in Survey Creation

Interview Coding in Disabled Academics Study

In an interdependent qualitative research paradigm, the progress of the research relies on the participants and researchers to continually seek the feedback of the participants on the research.

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