From heritage to postmodern grounded theorizing: Forty years of grounded theory

Abstract

First, a little background to contextualize my research: Today, through expanding media coverage, most people are at least minimally aware of the plight of children and adolescents in foster care. Here are some of the major trends. Currently, over a half a million children in the United States live in foster care, with 124,000 of them living in my home state of California (Adoption & Foster Care Analysis & Reporting System (AFCARS), 2007). They are placed in foster care for a variety of reasons – mainly child abuse, neglect, and parental substance abuse (American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 2005; Simms, Dubowitz, & Szilagyi, 2000). Nearly half these children are adolescents (AFCARS, 2007); most have been in care for over 2 years, with many spending the duration of childhood in foster care (AFCARS, 2007). And most experience multiple placement transitions which results in numerous caregivers, school changes, and loss of a variety of relationships (Harden, 2004; US General Accounting Office, 1999). Further, there is an overrepresentation of minority children in foster care, especially African Americans (Chibnall et al., 2003).

Citation

Kools, S. (2008), "From heritage to postmodern grounded theorizing: Forty years of grounded theory", Denzin, N.K., Salvo, J. and Washington, M. (Ed.) Studies in Symbolic Interaction (Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 32), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 73-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-2396(08)32007-9