Abstract
The way from empirical interview data to the development of theory is illustrated with reference to an intercultural study. This study was located in the field of mathematics education and focused on the development of a theory of personal meaning. Starting from only a rough understanding of what personal meaning might be, interviews were conducted with students from lower secondary level in Germany and Hong Kong. Due to the setting of the study in two cultures, a pragmatic interpretation of theoretical sampling had to be taken so that as much data as possible was collected to choose from throughout the analytical process. Data analysis followed grounded theory according to Strauss and Corbin (Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park: Sage, Grounded theory: Grundlagen qualitativer Sozialforschung [Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques]. Weinheim: Beltz; see also Chap. 1). Therefore, different types of codes (in-vivo, empirically developed, and conceptual) as well as different types of coding (open, axial, and selected) were the result of constant comparison and writing memos. By comparing codes and using a coding paradigm, categories and concepts were developed so that the theory of personal meaning started to evolve from the data. The results of the analyzing process were an empirically grounded theory of personal meaning consisting of 17 different kinds of personal meaning on the one hand and an underlying theoretical framework that describes the surrounding conditions of the construction of personal meaning on the other hand.
Keywords
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- 1.
I also investigated the role of the students’ cultural background for the construction of personal meaning by comparing the results of the students from Germany and Hong Kong. As this part of the project is not related to the application of grounded theorygrounded theory , it will not be reported in this chapter in detail (for further information see Vollstedt 2011b).
- 2.
Teppo (see Chap. 1, Sect. 5) groups axial and selective coding under the term intermediate coding.
- 3.
In the original interviewinterview , the transcript lines were numbered differently. There, every speech act was labeled with one number, i.e. this section was enumerated with 132–135. To make it as easy as possible to follow the coding processprocess , I chose here to number every line as presented above in order to find the different bits labeled with codes more easily.
- 4.
At the time of writing his introduction to Qualitative analysis for social sciences, Strauss (1987) used the term key category instead of core category core category . They denote, however, the same kind of category.
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Vollstedt, M. (2015). To See the Wood for the Trees: The Development of Theory from Empirical Interview Data Using Grounded Theory. In: Bikner-Ahsbahs, A., Knipping, C., Presmeg, N. (eds) Approaches to Qualitative Research in Mathematics Education. Advances in Mathematics Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9181-6_2
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