Chapter 2

1. Chapter 2 Philosophical, Paradigm, and Interpretive Frameworks Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

2. Key Questions • What philosophical assumptions are being acknowledged (implicitly or explicitly) in a qualitative study? • What paradigm stances do qualitative researchers use? • What interpretive or theoretical frameworks are researchers likely to use when qualitative researchers select a lens for their study? • How are the assumptions, paradigms, and interpretive/theoretical frameworks used in designing and or conducting a qualitative study? Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

3. The Role of Philosophical Assumptions, Paradigms, and Worldviews • When researchers undertake a qualitative study, you are tacitly agreeing to its underlying philosophical assumptions. • After choosing qualitative research, then researchers bring to the study their own worldviews that shape the direction of the study. • Further, some researchers use an interpretive lens because they want to advocate for a correction to marginalization of underrepresented groups or to societal problems. Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

4. Philosophical Assumptions • The nature of reality (ontology) • How researchers know what they know (epistemology) • The role of values in research (axiology) • The language of research (rhetorical) • The methods used in the process of research (methodology) Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

5. Philosophical Assumption:Ontological • Question: What is the nature of reality? • Characteristics: Reality is subjective and multiple, as seen by participants in the study • Implications for Practice: Researcher uses quotes and themes in words of participants and provides evidence of different perspectives Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

6. Philosophical Assumption:Epistemological • Question: What is the relationship between the researcher and that being researched? • Characteristics: Researchers attempt to lessen distance between themselves and that what is being researched • Implications for Practice: Researchers collaborate and spend time in field with participants, to become an “insider” Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

7. Philosophical Assumption:Axiological • Question: What is the role of values? • Characteristics: Researchers acknowledge that research is value laden and that biases represent • Implications for Practice: Researchers openly discusses values that shape the narrative and includes own interpretation in conjunction with the interpretation of participants Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

8. Philosophical Assumption:Rhetorical • Question: What is the language of research? • Characteristics: Researchers write in a literary, informal style using the personal voice and uses qualitative terms and limited definitions • Implications for Practice: Researchers use an engaging style of narrative, may use first-person pronoun, and employ the language of qualitative research Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

9. Philosophical Assumption:Methodological • Question: What is the process of research? • Characteristics: Researchers use inductive logic, studies in the topic within its context, and uses an emerging design • Implications for Practice: Researchers work with particulars (details) before generalizations, describe in detail, the context of the study, and continually revise questions from experiences in the field Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

10. Paradigms and Worldviews • Definition of paradigm: a basic set of beliefs that guide action (Guba, 1990, p. 17). • Major research paradigms • Postpositivism • Social constructivism • Advocacy/Participatory • Pragmatism Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

11. Postpositivism • Approach • Scientific • Reductionism oriented • Cause/effect • A priori theories • Practice • Inquiry in logically related steps • Multiple perspectives from participants not single reality • Rigorous data collection and analysis • Use of computer programs • Reports have scientific structure (e.g., problem, data collection, etc.) Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

12. Social Constructivism • Approach • The understanding of the world in which we live and work • The development of multiple meanings • The researchers look for complexity of viewpoints • Practice • Researchers ask broad general open-ended questions • Researchers focus on the “processes” of interaction • Researchers focus on historical and cultural settings of participants • Researchers acknowledge their background shapes interpretation • Researchers “interpret” the meanings others have about the world Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

13. Advocacy/Participatory • Approach • It contains an action agenda • It focuses on issues such as oppression, domination, suppression, alienation and hegemony • It is recursive or dialectical • It is emancipatory • It helps people free themselves from constraints • It is practical and collaborative “with” others • Practice • The issues help shape research questions • The researchers work with participants to design questions • The “voice” of the participants is heard throughout the research process • The agenda is focused on action for reform Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

14. Pragmatism • Approach • Focuses on the outcomes of the research • Focuses on “what works” to address the research problem • Focuses on the researchers freedom of choice in methods • Focuses on the many approaches to collecting and analyzing data • Practice • The researchers use multiple methods to answer research questions • The research is conducted that best addresses the research problem Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

15. Theoretical Perspectives:Interpretive Communities • Postmodern perspective • Feminist theories • Critical theory • Critical Race Theory (CRT) • Queer Theory • Disability Theories Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

16. Postmodernism Perspectives • Assumptions • There are knowledge claims must be set within the world today in multiple perspectives such as race, gender, class, and group affiliations • There are negative conditions show themselves in the presence of hierarchies, power, control by individuals in the hierarchy and multiple meanings of language • There are different discourses • There are marginalized people that are important • There are Meta-narratives or universals hold true of the social conditions • There is a need to “deconstruct” the text to learn about the hierarchies, oppositions, contradictions Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

17. Postmodernism Perspectives • Examples • Interpretive Biography (Denzin, 1989) • Narrative (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) • Grounded Theory (Clark, 2005) – Researchers study “turning points”) during life transitions • Ethnography (Thomas, 1993) Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

18. Feminist Theories • Assumptions • The overall focus is on women’s diverse situations and the institutions that frame those situations • The subject matter is focused on domination within a patriarchal society • The lens is focused on gender • The goals are focused to establish collaborative relationships to place the researcher within the study so as not to be objective but transformative • Practice • The need to examine the researcher’s background to determine validity and trustworthiness of accounts • The need to report women’s voices without exploiting them • The need to use methods in a self-disclosing and respectful way Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

19. Critical Theory • Assumptions • The focus is concerned with empowering people to transcend the constrains placed on them by race, class and power • The theory is used to interpret or illuminate social action • The themes include scientific study of institutions and their transformation through interpreting meanings of social life, historical problems, domination, alienation, and social struggles Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

20. Critical Theory • An example from Ethnography • Focus on changes in how people think, encourage people to interact, form networks with the end goal of “social theorizing” • Focuses on the use of an intensive case study or historically comparative cases of specific actors • Focuses on the formation of formal models • Focuses on the use “ethnographic accounts” (interpretive social psychology) Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

21. Critical Race Theory (CRT) • Goals of CRT • To present stories about discrimination from the perspective of people of color (e.g., cases studies of descriptions and interviews • To eradicate racial subjugation while recognizing that race is a social construct • To interact race with other inequities such as gender and class • Practice • The research places race and racism is in the foreground of the research process • The research looks for ways to explain the experiences of people of color • The research offers transformative solutions if racial, gender and class subordination Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

22. Queer Theory • Assumptions • It is related to the complexities of individual identity • It explores how identities reproduce and perform in social forums • It uses the term “queer theory,” which allows for the incorporation of other social elements including race, class, age • It holds that binary distinctions are inadequate to describe sexual identity • Practice • It uses Postmodern or poststructural orientation to deconstruct dominant theories related to identity • It focuses on how identity is culturally and linked to discourse and overlaps with human sexuality Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

23. Disability Theories • Assumptions • The focus is addressing the meaning of inclusion in schools and encompasses administrators, teachers and parents who have children with disabilities • The focus is on disability as a dimension of human difference rather than defect • Practice • The research process views individuals with disabilities as different • The questions asked, labels applied to these individuals, communication methods, and consideration of how data collection will benefit the community are considered • The data are reported in a way that is respectful of power relationships. Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e

24. Chapter 2 Philosophical, Paradigm, and Interpretive Frameworks Creswell Qualitative Inquiry 2e