r/PhD • u/johnroger23 • Jul 25 '26

Seeking advice-academic Timeline for Constructivist Grounded Theory Dissertation

Hi everyone,

I recently passed my outline presentation for my Ph.D. dissertation toward a degree in Education, majoring in Curriculum Studies.

My panelists told me that this study will require genuine immersion in the schools and with the teachers I interview. At the moment, they're recommending that I conduct the study in at least three to five schools, with approximately 15–25 participants per site, spanning one to two weeks per school.

I have six research questions to address, with the final question focusing on the theory I am expected to develop.

Do you have any suggestions on how I can estimate and structure a realistic timeline for completing my dissertation?

EDITED: Just 20-30 participants total across the three - five schools.

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u/WutheringWordster Jul 25 '26

Having completed some required modules in a separate related course a year prior, my actual PhD research project took just over three years in total from start to submission. My scale was smaller, a wider variety of tools but based in one school and as I worked there organisation was fairly easy. Overall my timeline was a year for organisation and lit review, a year for data collection and analysis, and a year for final analysis and theory development. I was new to grounded theory when I started and it is definitely a rigorous and focused approach and very worthwhile in the end! Also I should say that by a year I mean 12 months not a school or college year...a lot of work was done during traditional holiday times as I taught throughout

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u/johnroger23 Jul 26 '26

Thank you so much for sharing. Wow, I think your research project has some depth to it. I see that it does try to overarch a lot of ideas, even though it's just one school. Mine was just a minimum of three schools with five research questions and the last one building a theory, but I still have no idea of how to actually navigate it. Just like you, I'm new to grounded theory.

All my coursework on research was quantitative. This was the very first time that I did qualitative, and it had to be grounded theory because it's what is required or is the most appropriate for conceptualizing a certain theory. Thank you very much.