Grounded Theory as a Qualitative Research Method: From Glaser and Strauss to Constructivist and Situational Extensions

Abstract

Grounded theory (GT) is one of the most influential and widely applied qualitative research methodologies in the social, health, educational, and management sciences, offering researchers a systematic, iterative framework for generating theory that is rigorously grounded in empirical data rather than derived deductively from prior theoretical commitments. This paper provides a comprehensive, critically informed, and practically oriented methodological review of grounded theory, tracing its intellectual development from Glaser and Strauss's foundational Discovery of Grounded Theory (1967) through the Strauss and Corbin reformulations of 1990 and 1998, the productive split between Glaserian and Straussian schools in 1992, and the transformative contributions of Kathy Charmaz's constructivist grounded theory (2006, 2014) and Adele Clarke's situational analysis (2005, 2018). The paper systematically addresses the philosophical and epistemological foundations of GT across objectivist, post-positivist, constructionist, and post-modern positions; a typology of six GT variants including classic Glaserian GT, Straussian GT, constructivist GT, situational analysis, dimensional analysis, and feminist GT; the twelve core procedures of GT research   initial sampling, open coding, constant comparison, memo-writing, focused and axial coding, theoretical sampling, theoretical saturation, selective coding, core category identification, and theory construction; a detailed comparison of the three major schools on nine methodological dimensions; quality and rigour criteria appropriate to each school; ethical considerations specific to GT's iterative, emergent design; disciplinary applications across health, education, management, and digital governance; and a systematic comparison with thematic analysis, narrative inquiry, ethnography, and interpretive phenomenological analysis. Six structured tables consolidate historical, typological, procedural, comparative, and quality information. Recent developments   including the abductive reasoning turn in GT, the use of AI-assisted coding tools in ATLAS.ti and NVivo, and the application of situational analysis to digital policy and AI governance research   are critically assessed. The paper argues that GT remains methodologically indispensable wherever the research question concerns an under-theorised social process, and that its greatest contribution   the insistence that rigorous theory can and should be built from systematic engagement with empirical data rather than imposed upon it  remains as significant today as it was in 1967.