Qualitative Research

Positioning Qualitative Inquiry

At the heart of the distinction between these various scientific methods are differing ontological, epistemological, and theoretical worldviews. Ontology refers to the nature of reality. Ontological questions interrogate fundamental ideas about what is real. Epistemology refers to a theory of knowledge. Epistemological discussions interrogate how we know the world, who can know, and what can be known. Theoretical perspectives are the philosophical stances that provide the logic and the criteria that organize methodology (the overall research strategy) and methods (the specific tools or techniques used in collecting and interpreting evidence). In short, basic philosophical differences [Page 1159]in these worldviews have a direct impact on the research design. Coherent research designs demonstrate consistent and integrated ontological, epistemological, theoretical, and methodological positions.

Most qualitative research starts from a constructivist epistemological position and from one of a variety of theoretical perspectives, such as inter-pretivist, feminist, or critical inquiry. Constructivists believe in the socially constructed nature of reality. This idea that reality is generated through social interaction and iterative processes has dramatic implications for addressing the basic epistemological questions raised above and thus for the methodologies and methods employed. Constructivists reject the basic premise that an objective researcher discovers truths from preexisting data. Instead, they believe in what Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln have called an “intimate relationship” between the researchers and the phenomenon under investigation. Marianne Phillips and Louise Jorgensen argue, based on the work of Vivien Burr and Kenneth Gergen, that constructivist approaches share four basic premises: a critical approach to taken-for-granted knowledge that is often overlooked or ignored, an interest in historical and cultural specificity, a link between knowledge development and processes, and a link between knowledge development and social action.

Within the constructivist epistemological tradition, there are many different theoretical schools of thought. Interpretivism has spawned a family of related traditions such as symbolic interactionism, phenomenology, and hermeneutics. For example, in his classic work on symbolic interactionism in 1969, Herbert Blumer summarized the three basic premises underlying his work: Humans act toward things on the basis of meaning that those things have for them; meaning is derived from, or arises out of, social interaction with others; and meanings attach and are modified through an interpretative process during interactions. Note that at the heart of symbolic interactionism is a belief that reality is not stable and preexisting but rather is socially constructed and given meaning only through ongoing interactions. Critical theorists believe that social action and social reform are an integral part of any research endeavor. Today's critical inquiry was heavily influenced by the 1972 work of Paulo Freire, Pedogogy of the Oppressed, which fueled important discussions about power relationships, oppression, exploitation, empowerment, democracy, social justice, and action-based research. Feminists in the 1970s and beyond have furthered these theoretical discussions, raising basic questions such as those posed by Sandra Harding in the title of her seminal book published in 1991, Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?

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