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coding analysis of the interview transcripts and notes allowed “conceptualization of the data—

coding each line is the guts of the [grounded theory] approach” (Orona, 1997, p. 179).

The act of coding is tedious, yet it is critical. Orona (1997) described a two-stage coding

process based on a quick first take at line-by-line coding, and a second, slower and more deliberate

reading and coding of the data, to see if the initial code fits. Individual and team coding was applied

in tandem to analyze the interview data. Covan (2008) suggested that students and novices to

grounded theory collaborate with others, because “multiple researchers culminate more experience

than one does alone” (p. 69). While the Albany events were not set-up this way causing me to be

functionally in the end the ‘lone researcher’ along with the fact that these dialogues lacked trained

facilitation to begin with, I was fortunate enough to team up with the Zeidler Center after moving

to Milwaukee whose expertise is often recruited to help with facilitation of dialogues and do

coding. Coding teams are useful in offering different interpretations of the data and in supporting

the development of descriptive labels or nodes for each line or group of lines included in the

interview transcript. Coding teams also supported the data interpretation phase, as the research

moved from the specific to conceptual levels of understanding through data aggregation.

After conducting the initial phases of open coding, axial coding of the emergent categories

was performed to achieve yet a higher level of theoretical abstraction of the coded data. Axial

coding is defined by Strauss and Corbin (1990) as a set of procedures whereby data is put back

together in new ways after open coding, by using the emergent properties of the codes to make

connections between categories. Oktay (2012) provided a clear and succinct understanding about

the way in which coding evolves during the course of a grounded theory study, indicating that

coding at the onset of the research is a process of discovery in which the focus of the study is still

unknown. The process of early coding narrows the scope of the data, while the application of axial

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