So Many Data, So Much Time: Living with Grounded Theory in a Rhetorical Autoethnography

Abstract

This chapter explores the challenges and rewards of grounded theory research methods carried out with too many data. In the context of a rhetorical autoethnography of family writing on which I am currently working, I discuss the special emotional resources (companionship, faith, and hope) necessary to persevere through the grueling and long-term challenges (loneliness, worries, and doubts) of this approach to qualitative research. The strategy of open coding receives careful attention, as it is the element of grounded theory methods that requires the most time and patience to carry out correctly. Tensions arise between the patient self-discipline by which the researcher resists reaching conclusions too soon (so as to preserve the inductive and illuminating character of the findings) and the yearning the researcher is likely to feel to arrive at some meaningful conclusions before those conclusions have been fully earned and validated. There is also discussion here of how quantitative filtering and sifting of qualitative codes helps to validate the coding process. I finish the chapter by sharing with readers some of my coding discoveries in my analysis of my family writing archive.