This week we looked at research paradigms, building on to last weeks session about Ontology and Epistemology. Different ontological and epistemological believes lead to different approaches to educational research. I will try my best to summarise the most common paradigms to try and gain a better understanding.
Positivism
Positivists have the ontological belief that there is one reality or truth and the epistemological view that knowledge can be measured. Positivism was established sometime in the nineteenth century in Europe. They believe reality exists independently of humans, they measure and observe natural and social phenomenon while trying to minimise interference and document results with scientific terms and symbols.
Positivists get criticised for applying their scientific methods to social phenomenon also. Many scholars believe there are too many variables and laws when it comes to social phenomena for this approach to be valid. This criticism has lead to a new paradigm called post-positivism which draws from both positivism and interpretivist paradigms in hopes of perfecting positivism.
Positivist research is often composed of numerical data and relies heavily on scientific experimentation.
Constructivism / Interpretivism
Constructivists have the ontological belief that there are multiple realities or truths and the epistemological view that reality needs to be interpreted to discover the truth. This essentially means that they believe truth and reality are socially constructed and that it is impossible to know reality since it’s always mediated by human senses.
They believe reality cannot be directly observed or accessed since it will become tainted by personal belief, world views, concepts etc. It’s more about understanding different perspectives on a phenomena rather than finding the absolute correct truth.
Pragmatism
Pragmatists have the ontological belief that reality is constantly debated, interpreted and changing and the epistemological view that knowledge should be examined with the tools and methods best suited for the problem.
It’s all about handling phenomena practically & logically.
“Pragmatism considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality.[3] Pragmatists contend that most philosophical topics—such as the nature of knowledge, language, concepts, meaning, belief, and science—are all best viewed in terms of their practical uses and successes.” – Pragmatism. (2020, March 10). Retrieved March 16, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatism
It’s essential to be aware of these different paradigms when conducting research. It allows you to more deeply understand claims made by “researchers” who believe in different paradigms. You need to be aware of researchers ontological and epistemological beliefs in order to better understand studies.
People who are too strongly embedded in their research paradigms often ignore or reject methods or data from other research. Sometimes this may be the right thing to do and sometimes it may flaunt their own research. I think that instead of jumping to deeply into one paradigm it’s better to be aware of them and chose what you believe is true.
PRJ701 Blog - Gijs 