Elaine Keane

Professor Elaine Keane, PhD, is Professor and Head of the Discipline of Education in the School of Education at the University of Galway, Ireland. Her research focuses on social class and education, teacher diversity, and constructivist grounded theory (CGT) and she has published widely and has led national and international projects in these areas. A member of the International Association of Grounded Theorists, Elaine is lead editor of the Routledge International Handbook of Constructivist Grounded Theory in Educational Research (Routledge, 2025) (co-editor, Robert Thornberg) and was also lead editor of the 2023 Routledge book about diversifying the teaching profession. She is Co-Editor of Irish Educational Studies, serves on the Editorial Board of Teaching in Higher Education, is Inaugural Chair of the National Initial Teacher Education Diversity Network and Convenor of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI) Special Interest Group on Teacher Diversity Research. Elaine has collaborated and published with CGT originator, Kathy Charmaz, and has taught expert workshops on CGT throughout Ireland and in Australia, South Africa, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S.A., including at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and ResearchTalk Inc. Elaine has also authored and co-authored chapters on CGT in several methodology books, including the Routledge Encyclopaedia of Qualitative Research Methods (forthcoming), APA Handbook of Research Methods in Psychology (2023), The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research Design (2022), and The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (5th ed., 2018).

KEYNOTE TALK ABSTRACT

Constructivist Grounded Theory in Qualitative Research for Social Justice: Purpose, Process, Promise

Grounded theory (GT), developed by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss in the 1960s, aims to construct ‘middle-range’ theory from data. It is exploratory, iterative, inductive-abductive, comparative, and systematic. GT’s exploratory nature is seen in its ground-up, open-ended approach through which the researcher is led by data. It is fundamentally iterative through the back-and-forth nature of data collection and analysis, both of which commence early in a study and are conducted in tandem. Both inductive and abductive logic are inherent in the GT process, with the researcher making tentative hypothetical statements through an inductive approach and investigating which hypothesis best explains an aspect of data through abduction. GT is founded upon Glaser’s constant comparative method, with researchers continually engaged in a process of comparison of data with data, data with codes, codes with codes, and so on, throughout the research process. Finally, GT is systematic in that a set of flexible guidelines is offered to the researcher to guide their work.
This keynote address commences by briefly exploring the history and development of GT and its variant ‘schools’, including Kathy Charmaz’s Constructivist GT (CGT) school, before examining its core features (including coding, theoretical sampling, analytic memoing, and conceptualising), some of which differ depending on the GT ‘school’ under consideration. I emphasise constructivist adaptations to the GT process, particularly those relating to the timing and nature of the literature review, researcher positionalities and related reflexivity, as well as meaningful participant involvement which are underpinned by CGT’s co-constructive principles. I then show how Constructivist GT is especially well aligned with social justice-oriented research as they serve mutually complementary purposes. GT methods can assist social justice researchers in making their work more analytic, precise, and compelling. A social justice focus can help grounded theorists to move their methods into macro analyses. In this context, I draw on CGT research across substantive disciplines to show how the methodology is being employed internationally to further social justice goals. Finally, I end by highlighting key challenges and important opportunities as we look towards the future use of GT and CGT in qualitative research internationally.