Exploration over Verification: Considering the Grounded Theory Method in <scp>TESOL</scp>

Abstract This article marks the 60th anniversary of TESOL Quarterly by revisiting the Grounded Theory Method (GTM) and illustrating its untapped potential for second language research and pedagogy. After tracing GTM's philosophical lineage to contemporary variants, the paper distils its core principles: exploration over verification, recursive data collection and analysis, constant comparison, theoretical sampling, and emergent theory specific to the contexts from which it was constructed. Two exemplary TESOL Quarterly studies – Moore's Critical GTM of L1 dissociation among Japanese‐English plurilinguals and Smith et al.'s constructivist investigation of multimodal composing – demonstrate how an exploratory use of GTM offers insight into underresearched areas of second language education and offers avenues for innovative responses. Rigorous guidelines are offered in order to demystify aspects of GTM, such as open, focused and theoretical coding, memoing. This article concludes by mapping future research tasks such as digital literacies, multilingual ecologies, and teacher trajectories. The conclusions are that GTM can help teacher‐researchers to look beyond simply verifying received theory, and to generate their own context‐sensitive theories that have the potential to both improve teacher insight and positively shape the future of second language instruction.