FROM DATA TO THEORY: METHODOLOGICAL DIALOGUE BETWEEN PEDAGOGICAL ACTION RESEARCH AND GROUNDED THEORY

This study articulates Pedagogical Action Research (PAR) and Grounded Theory (GT), recognizing that both require methodological rigor, albeit of distinct natures. Although GT can be employed from a positivist perspective, this work adopts a critical and reflective approach, focused on situated interpretation and social transformation. The central question guiding the investigation is: from a critical perspective, how can GT contribute to ensuring that the data constructed during Action Research approaches the construction of a theory without losing its connection to the transformative praxis that gives rise to it? To answer this, the epistemological bases of both methodologies are discussed, explaining the organization of data in order to maximize the use of collective results and highlight their theoretical potential. The stages of open and axial coding are particularly mobilized, understood not as mechanical technical procedures, but as analytical movements capable of challenging empirical data, making emergent categories explicit, and revealing theories implicit in the educational practice of participating teachers. Based on Franco (2005, 2016, 2019), Strauss and Corbin (2008), and Quaranta (2024), the study argues that, when critically reinterpreted, GT not only reorganizes data but also contributes to making explicit theoretical categories emerging from practice, bringing PAR closer to theoretical construction and reaffirming it as a field that produces knowledge and social transformation.