CRITICAL EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT RESEARCH PARADIGMS
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT RESEARCH PARADIGMS

Summary/Abstract: The main purpose of this piece is to offer a comprehensive picture of how different research paradigms can make a distinctive influence on an overall research design. It commences with an outline of few philosophical ideas related to the perception of the world, change that occurs in it, as well as knowledge creation. It moves on to explaining the concept of a researcher’s paradigm in general and how its main aspects: epistemology, ontology, axiology and methodology, mutually interlink. A full account of these aspects is given and their importance for any research is explained. This is followed by an elaboration of different versions of paradigms – from realism to positivism and from social constructivism to pragmatism. A critical explanation is given of how the methodological debate about ‘incompatibility thesis’ and ‘paradigm purity’ led to a paradigm shift with an introduction of pragmatism as an approach that integrates qualitative and quantitative methods. Finally, some general aspects of a researcher’s reflexivity and ethical stance are also proposed, as these are the key issues to take into consideration pre/during/post any research.

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