Pragmatism on its side, understands that relationships in research are determined by what the researcher deems as appropriate to a particular given study.

Constructivists on the contrary, believe that there should be an interactive link between researcher and participants, and that since knowledge is socially and historically situated, it needs to address issues of power and trust. Finally, those following a transformative worldview reject cultural relativism and recognize that various versions of reality are based on social positioning.įrom an epistemological point of view, post-positivists believe that objectivity is key and than the researcher manipulates and observes in a dispassionate objective manner. Pragmatism asserts that there is a single reality and that all individuals have their own unique interpretation of reality. Your ontological assumptions inform your epistemological assumptions which inform your methodology and these all give rise to your methods employed to collect data.įrom an ontological point of view, post-positivism understands that there is one reality which is knowable within a specific level of probability, while constructivism understands that the nature of reality is multiple and socially constructed.

Therefore, how one views the constructs of social reality and knowledge affects how they will go about uncovering knowledge of relationships among phenomena and social behavior. Guba (1990) describes a paradigm or worldview as 'a basic set of beliefs that guide action.” That basic set of beliefs of the researcher is based on his ontological (What is the nature of reality?) and epistemological assumptions (What is the nature of knowledge and the relationship between the knower and the would-be known?). The worldview of the researcher as well as his/her adscription to a particular Interpretive Community (if so) is going to have a deep impact in the decisions and inquiry procedures he/she will put in practice.

Researchers bring to their studies their particular way of understanding how things work in our world, and the way knowledge is constructed.

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