Kathy Charmaz Research Articles

Illness Experiences of Brazilian People Who Were Hospitalized Due to COVID-19 and Faced Long COVID Repercussions in Their Daily Life: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study.

Long COVID is a multisystem condition that has multiple consequences for the physical, mental, and social health of COVID-19 survivors. The impact of the long COVID condition remains unclear, particularly among middle-aged and older adults, who are at greater risk than younger people of persisting symptoms associated with COVID-19. Therefore, we aimed to understand the experiences of middle-aged and older people who had been hospitalized for COVID-19 and the repercussions of long-term COVID symptoms in their daily lives. A qualitative study was carried out, adopting the framework of the constructivist grounded theory (CGT) proposed by Kathy Charmaz. Fifty-six middle-aged and older adult participants from the southern region of Brazil were recruited. Data were gathered from semi-structured telephone interviews. Concomitantly a comparative analysis was performed to identify categories and codes using the MaxQDA® software (version 2022). Three subcategories were identified: (1) experiencing COVID-19 in the acute phase; (2) oscillating between 'good days' and 'bad days' in long COVID; and (3) (re)constructing identity. These concepts interact with each other and converge upon the central category of this study: recasting oneself to the uniqueness of the illness experience of long COVID. Our findings provided insights related to the disruption in the lives of long COVID-19 sufferers who still live with persistent symptoms of the disease, including physical, social, family, emotional and spiritual repercussions. Likewise, this study may aid in developing friendly and welcoming social environments, lowering stigma and prejudice towards patients with long COVID, and fostering prompt and suitable policy support and mental health care for these individuals.

The Application of Constructivist Grounded Theory Methodology in an Urban Planning Doctoral Thesis

The aim of this paper is to show the potential value of using the constructivist grounded theory (CGT) methodology in the Urban and Regional Planning discipline. This is done by reflecting on the application of the CGT fundamentals defined by Kathy Charmaz, applied in a doctoral thesis in Urban and Regional Planning. The substantive area of research in which the thesis took place was the practical training experience of planners in becoming professionally registered. The thesis collected primary data through interviews with 14 planners who have undergone the process of practical training to record, document, and analyse their experiences as a prerequisite and requirement of professional registration. The use of the CGT methodology provides valuable insight into the registration process of planners in South Africa and encourages doctoral candidates to use CGT methodology with the aim of generating new knowledge and theory in the built environment. This paper recommends that CGT methodology should be encouraged, particularly when contributing to fields that are under-researched, limited, or non-existent.

Who is sensitising whom? A participatory interview guide development as an awareness tool within a health care research project

Who is sensitising whom? A participatory interview guide development as an awareness tool within a health care research project

The Interpretive Interview. An Interview Form Centring on Research Participants’ Constructions

One might be tempted to ask: Is discussing qualitative interviewing with yet another name tag on it once again old wine in a new bottle? In this contribution, I argue that describing our interviewing and data analysis still needs some reflection: It is a fine cuvée (ending the vinophile metaphor here) that you might want to get a taste of herewith: Discussing qualitative interviewing deepens the understanding of the kind of interviewing Kathy Charmaz proposed while building explicitly on its traditions within social scientific hermeneutics. Charmaz was kind enough to refer to my work – so it is my honour to proceed with my thinking following our time together in Vienna. In this paper, I will focus on the way of doing qualitative interviews that in the end leads to a data quality that, to the largest extent possible, fits our exigencies in interpretively oriented research. Put in a nutshell, we are seeking an interview form that puts the interview partners at the core of the communicative act and in the drivers’ seats of the interview situation. We thus end up with interview material that is rich in stories told and connections made at the free choice of the participants. This stands in contrast to the idea that qualitative interviews should always be based on interview guidelines. The latter can be clearly differentiated from the interpretive interview style proposed here – and is per se not a bad choice as long as it fits the overall methodology and the ensuing research interests.

Constructivist Grounded Theory: A New Research Approach in Social Science

This article tries to explore the constructivist grounded theory (CGT) in qualitative research. American sociologist Kathy Charmaz has developed a new qualitative research field “Constructivist Grounded Theory” for the first time in 2006. Constructivist grounded theory is a qualitative research methodology that draws comparison between the ethical principles of deontology, utilitarian and virtue ethics, and individuals seek to understand the world in which they live and work. It is a popular method for research studies mainly in psychology, education, and nursing. In social sciences, it represents culture, context, literacy, personal experiences, as well as application of knowledge. It also presents the theoretical substructures of symbolic interactionism and constructivism. Constructivism is used for research, learning, and teaching with peers. There are various types of constructivism, such as social, psychological, personal, radical, and contextual constructivism. On the other hand, symbolic interactionism is the process of human interaction that provides the meanings for the experiences through language, symbols, and social interactions. This study tries to investigate how constructivist grounded theory has developed in times from the original grounded theory of Glaser and Strauss. The paper also tries to highlight characteristics, application, and importance of constructivist grounded theory.

Contextual factors influencing patients' experiences of acute deterioration and medical emergency team (MET) encounter: A grounded theory study.

This paper explores the personal, social and structural factors that influence patients' experiences of acute deterioration and medical emergency team (MET) encounter. Patient experience is recognized as a means of assessing healthcare delivery with a positive experience being linked to high-quality healthcare, improved patient safety and reduced length of stay. The experience of acute deterioration is unique, extensive and complex. However, little is known about this experience from the patient's perspective. Constructivist grounded theory, informed by Kathy Charmaz, was used to explore the personal, social and structural factors that influence patients' experiences of acute deterioration and MET encounter. Using a semi-structured interview guide, in-depth individual interviews were conducted with 27 patients from three healthcare services in Victoria, Australia. Data were collected over a 12-month period from 2018 to 2019. Interview data were analysed using grounded theory processes. Contextual factors exert a powerful influence on patients' experiences of acute deterioration and MET encounter. The most significant factors identified include patients' expectations and illness perception, relationship with healthcare professionals during MET call and past experiences of acute illness. The expectations and perceptions patients had about their disease can condition their overall experience. Healthcare professional-patient interactions can significantly impact quality of care, patient experience and recovery. Patients' experiences of illness and healthcare can impact a person's future health-seeking behaviour and health status. Patients' actions and processes about their experiences of acute deterioration and MET encounter are the result of the complex interface of contextual factors. The findings from this study have highlighted the need for revised protocols for screening and management of patients who experience acute deterioration.

Kathy Charmaz: Theory, Method, and Scholarly Identity

Kathy Charmaz is arguably the most important member of the second generation of grounded theorists. In this paper we present our analysis of her research and published works in reference to the historical and biographic contexts that shaped them. Our analysis is framed by the sexpartite scholarly identity Charmaz developed over the course of the 55 years of her academic career, including: medical sociologist, symbolic interactionist, qualitative researcher, grounded theorist, public sociologist, and interpreter of the Chicago School Diaspora. We examine the significant theoretical, methodological, and substantive contributions she has made, such as her work on the implications of silences in qualitative interviewing, the necessity of contextualizing research, the gendered nature of living with chronic illness and disability, and most notably, the features of her own constructivist grounded theory. In doing so, we address tensions in her understanding of obdurate reality and theoretic saturation, as well as the perils of the unintended consequences of championing reflexivity. We conclude by conceptualizing how Charmaz's scholarly activities serve as a means by which Chicago School traditions are passed on to subsequent generations of symbolic interactionists and grounded theory researchers.

A short history of empirical homiletics in South Africa

In this article I am telling the story of the history of empirical homiletics, in particular the use of the Grounded Theory methodology of doing content analysis of sermons and other documents, such as interviews, to ascertain in a scientific way the contents of documents. This is an exercise in reflexive-biographical exploration of empirical homiletical methodology. I first discussed the analysis of sermons using quantitative methods in my book Communicative preaching and the thesis of Julian Müller. There was a growing urge amongst homileticians to study the contents of sermons. The Heidelberg analytical method is a form of qualitative sermon analysis. Qualitative methodology suits theologians better than quantitative methods. I have discussed this method and referred to the work of Johan Cilliers in this regard. The next development of sermon content analysis is the Grounded Theory methodology. We made use of the first stage of the development of qualitative Grounded Theory methodology in the analysis of Desmond Tutu’s sermons and statements. After the international publication of this book, Prof. F. Gerrit Immink started using the upgraded form of Grounded Theory by Kathy Charmaz for the empirical homiletical research of his doctoral students at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. I also discussed my book Preaching in a context of poverty as the theoretical part of my later research with Grounded Theory analysis of sermons on poverty. Then I discussed my six yearlong content analysis of sermons preached with Matthew 25:31–46 as sermon text by means of Grounded Theory methodology. Important is the chapter by Müller & Wepener in an international publication, and the article on angry preaching by Wepener and Pieterse which was published in an international journal. Lastly, I have mentioned the post-graduate research with the Grounded Theory method by students. The value that is being added in this article by doing this historical survey is to show the development and to signal what might be waiting in the near future for our discipline.

Reflections on the life, work, and influence of Professor Kathy Charmaz (1939-2020): Academic, Constructivist… Grounded Theorist

Upon hearing of the death of Professor Kathy Charmaz (27 July 2020), I reflected on her life’s work, bringing together Grounded Theory and constructivism, and holding a titan status among qualitative researchers revered around the world. For me, I was transported to a little over five years ago, where I was attending a supervision meeting with my master’s thesis supervisor at the University of Liverpool. I was writing up the results of my first ever qualitative research project, which was an examination of gender identity in never married, older women in the United Kingdom, and I was using Grounded Theory to analyse interview data I had collected. Whilst much of the meeting’s content now blurs into a distant fog of the past, there is one question my supervisor asked me, which remains firmly and vividly rooted in my memory: ‘Why have you used a classical approach to Grounded Theory, and not followed Kathy Charmaz’s version?’.

The Postulate of Grounded Theory in the Perception of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk in Terms of Political Science

This article aims to demonstrate the applicability of grounded theory in the analysis of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk in terms of political science. The fundamental question is how to examine the sources which exhibit the ideological character of the space of public museums? In order to answer this question, the concepts by Kathy Charmaz and Adela Clarke are referred to, which have been noticed to offer unused potential for qualitative research conducted in the field of political science. This meant departing from the “classical” versions of grounded theory, created by Barney G. Glaser and Anselm L. Strauss, in favor of what is called “a postmodern turn,” and approaches which synthesize constructivism and social constructionism. Data obtained from primary and secondary sources concerning the main axis of the core exhibition were analyzed. The starting point was my own field research, the results of which were compared with the data from an interview with the museum’s architects and the transcription of a photograph. Inspired by procedures compliant with the non-classical versions of grounded theory, it was demonstrated that the main axis of the core exhibition was designed as a liberal manifesto of freedom. This determined the subject of analysis to be a part of the research field of political science. The spatial solutions applied testified to their designers’ intention to provide visitors with freedom of movement and assembly. They were considered as conceptual categories, related to the absence of a dedicated sightseeing route and the vastness of the space left for visitors. A comparative analysis of codes and categories, however, made it possible to identify yet another interpretative trope, related to the identification of freedom with alienation. In this way, “liberty” has become problematized.

\u2018I know those people will be approachable and not mistreat us\u2019: a qualitative study of inspectors and private drug sellers\u2019 views on peer supervision in rural Uganda

BackgroundPeer supervision improves health care delivery by health workers. However, in rural Uganda, self-supervision is what is prescribed for licensed private drug sellers by statutory guidelines. Evidence shows that self-supervision encourages inappropriate treatment of children less than 5 years of age by private drug sellers. This study constructed a model for an appropriate peer supervisor to augment the self-supervision currently practiced by drug sellers at district level in rural Uganda.MethodsIn this qualitative study, six Key informant interviews were held with inspectors while ten focus group discussions were conducted with 130 drug sellers. Data analysis was informed by the Kathy Charmaz constructive approach to grounded theory. Atlas ti.7 software package was used for data management.ResultsA model with four dimensions defining an appropriate peer supervisor was developed. The dimensions included; incentives, clearly defined roles, mediation and role model peer supervisor. While all dimensions were regarded as being important, all participants interviewed agreed that incentives for peer supervisors were the most crucial. Overall, an appropriate peer supervisor was described as being exemplary to other drug sellers, operated within a defined framework, well facilitated to do their role and a good go-between drug sellers and government inspectors.ConclusionFour central contributions advance literature by the model developed by our study. First, the model fills a supervision gap for rural private drug sellers. Second, it highlights the need for terms of reference for peer supervisors. Third, it describes who an appropriate peer supervisor should be. Lastly, it elucidates the kind of resources needed for peer supervision.

Knowledge Decolonization à la Grounded Theory: Control Juggling in Research Situations

ABSTRACT Knowledge production is not free of political connotations. The researcher defines and moulds the research situation in which she will be gathering the data. Simultaneously, she will be also conditioned by the ways the situation is constructing her as a researcher. I shall elucidate some of aspects that influence how research situations are constructed based on the examples of my own empirical work. I will show some of the multiple negotiations contained in the process, influenced by the fact that I was a Spanish urban young woman doing research in a rural region of Bolivia for the German international cooperation for development (DED). Two sorts of control will be outlined and an argument for control juggling within a decolonial move of humanizing research will be sketched. I shall argue that Kathy Charmaz’s constructivist Grounded Theory is flexible and systematic enough to make space for other ways of knowing, to grasp these subtle multifaceted processes of constructing a research situation while facilitating the necessary reflexivity for transformation purposes, contributing to a wider project of decolonizing knowledge production.

Maintaining masculinity: Moral positioning when accounting for prostate cancer illness.

This article explores men's experiences following treatment for prostate cancer through the lens of chronic illness. Recent empirical work suggests prostate cancer may be better understood as a chronic illness. Prostate cancer offers a case study to examine how older men's masculinities are disrupted by chronic illness experience. Qualitative interviews with 29 men, recruited from two prostate cancer support groups, explored prostate cancer and post-treatment experiences. Men's experiences are examined by drawing on the works of Steve Robertson and Kathy Charmaz for understanding masculinities in relation to health and illness. Aspects of chronic illness experience are identified in men's accounts, particularly concerns with loss of moral status resulting from ongoing and potentially stigmatising treatment side effects. Four forms of moral positioning are identified that align with Steve Robertson's empirically derived model theorising the relationship between health and hegemonic masculinity. These findings facilitate discussion of the interaction between chronic illness experience, morality and masculinities, providing insight into how older men maintain their masculinity in the wake of illness.

Doświadczanie ciała zrekonstruowanego protezą kończyny górnej – socjosomatyczne studium ciała biotechnologicznego

Artykuł przyjmuje postać socjosomatycznego studium nad ciałem zrekonstruowanym protezą kończyny górnej. Jego podstawę empiryczną stanowią badania jakościowe przeprowadzone w grupie osób posiadających unilateralny lub bilateralny deficyt ręki (N=21), który w przypadku tej celowo dobranej grupy podlegał technologicznemu uzupełnieniu przy zastosowaniu zarówno protezy funkcjonalnej (mechanicznej bądź mioelektrycznej), jak i kosmetycznej. Zbieranie i analizowanie materiału empirycznego odbywało się zgodnie z założeniami i podstawowymi zasadami konstruktywistycznego ujęcia metodologii teorii ugruntowanej według Kathy Charmaz. W określeniu ramy teoretycznej sięgnięto do fenomenologii (Maurice Merleau-Ponty) oraz niektórych nurtów społecznego konstruktywizmu (Michael Foucault, Erving Goffman, Arthur Frank). Zasadniczą część tekstu stanowią analizy materiału empirycznego, które koncentrują się wokół problemu podmiotowego doświadczania ciała biotechnologicznego na płaszczyźnie podejmowanego działania w wymiarze: 1) funkcjonalnym, 2) estetycznym, 3) zmysłowym, 4) interakcyjnym, 5) tożsamościowym. Pracę wieńczą wnioski dotyczące waloru aplikacyjnego prezentowanych badań na gruncie medycyny klinicznej.

Mikroświat inności dorosłych osób z niepełnosprawnością intelektualną – raport z badań

The text is an attempt to present the phenomenon of experiencing otherness by adult people with mental disability. The author presents survey results which are a part of a bigger project researching the microworlds of adults with intellectual disability. In the research, both as the strategy of collecting the research materials and the method of their analysis, the methodology of constructing grounded theory by Kathy Charmaz was used. 14 adults with intellectual disability, attendees of the Community Centre of Self-Help, were researched, as well as 14 attendants (including parents and the centre’s employees). The results showed otherness as a specific phenomenon experienced by all the surveyed people with intellectual disability.

Examining grounded theory through the lens of rationalist epistemology

The objective of scientific, or more broadly, academic knowledge is to provide an understanding of the social and natural world that lies beyond common sense and everyday thinking. Academics use an array of techniques, methods and conceptual apparatuses to achieve this goal. The question we explore in this essay is the following: Does the grounded theory approach, in the constructivist version developed by Kathy Charmaz, provide the necessary methodological tools for the creation of knowledge and theories beyond everyday thinking? To conduct our analysis, we have drawn on the rationalist epistemology originally developed by Gaston Bachelard and taken up a few decades later by Pierre Bourdieu and colleagues to look at the epistemological foundation of the CGT methods as defined by Charmaz. We focussed on two distinctive epistemological features characterising constructivist grounded theory (CGT): the use of inductive reasoning to generate interpretative theory; and the primacy of subjectivity over objectivity as the preferred path to knowledge making. While the usefulness of CGT for conducting qualitative research and understanding the perspective of social actors has been acknowledged by scholars in health professions education research and other research areas, the inductivist logic on which it draws raises questions concerning the nature of the knowledge yielded by this approach. As we argue in this article, it is still unclear in what way the interpretative theory generated by CGT is not a duplication of everyday thinking expressed through meta-narratives. It is also unclear how the understanding of social phenomena can be refined if the use of inductive procedures logically implies the creation of a new theory each time a study is conducted. We engage with these questions to broaden the epistemological conversation within the health professions education research community. It is our hope that scholars in the field will engage in this epistemological conversation and advance it in new directions.

“I'm a normal autistic person, not an abnormal neurotypical”: Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis as biographical illumination

Building on Michael Bury's “biographical disruption” and Kathy Charmaz's “loss of self,” which describe the deteriorative impacts of chronic illness on perceptions of selfhood, I propose “biographical illumination”—a transformed conceptualization of self and identity that is facilitated by but extends beyond medical meaning, enriching personal biography and social relationships. The concept is perhaps most applicable to experiences with neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions in which brain difference and personhood are perceived to be closely intertwined. In this study, biographical illumination is used to describe the experiences of autistic adults who learned of their Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis during teen years or adulthood. Through an ASD lens, participants found explanation for their atypicality and developed a more valued self-concept. Learning of the condition did not disrupt their biography; rather, it became integral to and constitutive of it. With a new self-concept, participants re-gauged personal expectations for normalization and accessed communities of alike others, forging relationships that affirmed identity.

Design Criteria for Visual Cues Used in Disruptive Learning Interventions Within Sustainability Education

Abstract This paper presents the design criteria for Visual Cues – visual stimuli that are used in combination with other pedagogical processes and tools in Disruptive Learning interventions in sustainability education – to disrupt learners’ existing frames of mind and help re-orient learners’ mind-sets towards sustainability. The theory of Disruptive Learning rests on the premise that if learners’ frames of mind or frames of reference can be disrupted (in other words, challenged), then learners’ mind-sets can be re-oriented towards sustainability, and indeed learners can be motivated to engage in change agency for sustainability. The use of Visual Cues thus unsettle or challenge learners’ mind-sets, and in doing so, set them on the pathway towards re-orientation in becoming more sustainability oriented, and/or in motivating engagement in sustainability change agency. The findings form part of a broader research study on ESD conducted in a higher education institution in Ireland within an undergraduate degree of teacher education. Kathy Charmaz’ Constructivist Grounded Theory approach guided the entire study, resulting in the articulation of the theory of, and processes within, Disruptive Learning. This paper presents design criteria for Visual Cues that were articulated through a thematic analysis approach from data emerging from reflective diaries, follow-up interviews, audio recordings and observational notes. The findings from this study in respect of design criteria state that Visual Cues must disrupt rather than disturb; must represent (have impressions of) real life contexts, scenarios, practices or events; must provoke controversy; must contain a visual stimulation; and can have a critical question.

A Methodological Nexus of Pierre Bourdieu and Kathy Charmaz: An Example from a Doctoral Study

This article discusses the example of how Pierre Bourdieu and Kathy Charmaz’s concepts were applied in a doctoral research study. Bourdieu’s concepts have been proved to be useful in comprehending functionality within social groups. Charmaz’s notion of constructivism on the other hand emphasises the need to engage participants in constructing their reality from an epistemological perspective. Thirty two participants in this article were an equivalent of a social group. The study included three main participant systems of care: the medical/health, the judiciary and the prison systems. This discussion highlights how Bourdieu illuminated the exploration of mental health service functional inequalities within these systems in Zimbabwe.

Building a competent health manager at district level: a grounded theory study from Eastern Uganda.

BackgroundHealth systems in low-income countries are often characterized by poor health outcomes. While many reasons have been advanced to explain the persistently poor outcomes, management of the system has been found to play a key role. According to a WHO framework, the management of health systems is central to its ability to deliver needed health services. In this study, we examined how district managers in a rural setting in Uganda perceived existing approaches to strengthening management so as to provide a pragmatic and synergistic model for improving management capacity building.MethodsTwenty-two interviews were conducted with district level administrative and political managers, district level health managers and health facility managers to understand their perceptions and definitions of management and capacity building. Kathy Charmaz’s constructive approach to grounded theory informed the data analysis process.ResultsAn interative, dynamic and complex model with three sub-process of building a competent health manager was developed. A competent manager was understood as one who knew his/her roles, was well informed and was empowered to execute management functions. Professionalizing health managers which was viewed as the foundation, the use of engaging learning approaches as the inside contents and having a supportive work environment the frame of the model were the sub-processes involved in the model. The sub-processes were interconnected although the respondents agreed that having a supportive work environment was more time and effort intensive relative to the other two sub-processes.ConclusionsThe model developed in our study makes four central contributions to enhance the WHO framework and the existing literature. First, it emphasizes management capacity building as an iterative, dynamic and complex process rather than a set of characteristics of competent managers. Second, our model suggests the need for professionalization of health managers at different levels of the health system. Third, our model underscores the benefits that could be accrued from the use of engaging learning approaches through prolonged and sustained processes that act in synergy. Lastly, our model postulates that different resource investments and a varied range of stakeholders could be required at each of the sub-processes.