From Grounded Theory to Critical Hermeneutics? Issues of elaborating, coding and analysis of data concerning the Social Dimension of Educational Policies

Abstract

The present study focuses on the social dimension of state or supra-national policies in education. It suggests that a dialectic synthesis between grounded theory techniques (“labeling phenomena” procedures and “conceptualizing- categorizing phenomena” processes) and critical hermeneutics would be crucial in order to reveal and interpret the Discourses and the Practices that determine

• the transformation of the social inequalities to educational ones and vice versa,
• the role of class, race, gender and cultural background in the social and educational reality.

The suggested synthesis can contribute to the construction of a “meaningful circuit”, useful for a profound analysis of both the way social structure affects education and the way educational policy acts (or is impeded to act) as a social- compensative policy.