Revealing Socially Constructed Knowledge Through Quasi-Structured Interviews and Grounded Theory Analysis

Socially constructed knowledge pertains to the everyday understandings that mediate our lives. Much of how we act, our social relationships and how we perceive different phenomena are tempered by this knowledge. Even though this knowledge is important for living within the social world, it is considered to be taken-for-granted and commonsensical. This paper outlines the qualitative techniques of quasi-structured interviewing and grounded theory analysis that can reveal these personally held understandings and meanings. Included with these techniques are trustworthiness strategies aimed at increasing the methodological rigor for this type of qualitative research.