2. Key Questions
• Where do philosophy and interpretive
frameworks (theory) fit into the overall
process of research?
• Why is it important to understand the
philosophical assumptions?
• What four philosophical assumptions exist
when you choose qualitative research?
• How are these philosophical assumptions
used and written into a qualitative study?
2Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
3. Key Questions (continued)
• What types of interpretive frameworks are
used in qualitative research?
• How are interpretive frameworks written
into a qualitative study?
• How are philosophical assumptions and
interpretive frameworks linked in a
qualitative study?
3Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
4. Philosophy and Interpretive Frameworks
Within the Research Process
• Philosophy is an important element of the
research process
• Abstract ideas and beliefs inform research
• Philosophy and interpretive frameworks
enter the entire process
4Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
5. Situating Philosophy
and Interpretive
Frameworks Within
the Research
Process
5
Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
Source: Adapted from Denzin and Lincoln (2011, p. 12).
Used with permission, SAGE.
6. Why Philosophy is Important
• It affects how we develop and address our
research questions
• Our training and scholarly community
shape our philosophical assumption
• Reviewers make philosophical
assumptions when evaluating studies
6Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
7. Philosophical Assumptions
• The nature of reality (ontology)
• How knowledge is known (epistemology)
• The acknowledgement of values in
research (axiology)
• The procedures of qualitative research
(methodology)
7Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
8. Philosophical Assumption:
Ontological
• Question: What is the nature of reality?
• Characteristics: Reality is multiple as seen
through many different views
• Implications for Practice: Researcher reports
different perspectives as themes develop in the
findings
8Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
9. Philosophical Assumption:
Epistemological
• Questions: What counts as knowledge? How are knowledge
claims justified? 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,
subjective evidence
• Implications for Practice: Researchers collaborate and spend
time in field with participants, to become an “insider” and rely
on quotes from participants as evidence
9Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
10. Philosophical Assumption:
Axiological
• Question: What is the role of values?
• Characteristics: Researchers acknowledge that
research is value-laden and that biases are present
• Implications for Practice: Researchers openly
discusses values that shape the narrative and
includes own interpretation in conjunction with the
interpretation of participants
10Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
11. Philosophical Assumption:
Methodological
• Questions: What is the process of research? What is the
language of research?
• Characteristics: Researcher uses inductive logic, studies
in the topic within its context, and uses an emerging
design
• Implications for Practice: Researcher works with
particulars (details) before generalizations, describe in
detail the context of the study, and continually revise
questions from experiences in the field
11Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
12. Writing Philosophical Assumptions
into Qualitative Studies
• Throughout the study through
– Multiple perspectives reported as themes
– Quotes of participants
– Discussion of researcher values and biases
– Describe details and particulars before
generalizations
• As a special section on philosophy
12Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
13. Interpretive Frameworks
• Definition of paradigm: a basic set of
beliefs that guide action (Guba, 1990, p.
17).
• Major research paradigms
– Postpositivism
– Social constructivism
– Transformative frameworks
– Pragmatism
13Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
14. Postpositivism
• Approach
– Scientific
– Reductionistic
– 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.)
14Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
15. Social Constructivism
• Approach
– Seek understanding of the world in which participants live
and work
– Develop varied, multiple meanings
– Look for complexity of views
• Practice
– Ask broad general open-ended questions
– Address the “processes” of interaction
– Focus on historical and cultural settings of participants
– Acknowledge researchers’ backgrounds shapes
interpretation
– Make sense of the meanings others have about the world
15Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
16. Transformative Frameworks
• Approach
• Aid people to improve society
• Knowledge reflects power and social relationships
• Issues include oppression, domination, suppression,
alienation, and hegemony
• Participatory action research-recursive or dialectical, people
free themselves, emancipatory, and practical and
collaborative “with” others
• Practice
• Issues help shape research questions
• Work with participants to design questions, collect and
analyze, and report
• The “voice” of the participants is heard throughout the
research process
16Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
17. Postmodern Perspectives
• Assumptions
• Knowledge claims must be set within the world today
in multiple perspectives such as race, gender, class,
and group affiliations
• Negative conditions show themselves hierarchies,
power and control by individuals, and multiple
meanings of language
• Marginalized people are important
• Meta-narratives or universals span social conditions
• “Deconstruct” texts in terms of language to learn
about the hierarchies, oppositions, contradictions
– E.g., influence of information technologies
17Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
18. Pragmatism
• Approach
• Focus is on the outcomes of the research
• “What works” to address the research problem
• The problem being studied and questions asked about it
• The “what and how” of research based on where the
researcher wants to go
• Practice
• Use multiple methods to answer research questions
• Employ multiple sources of data
– E.g., ethnographers may employ surveys and qualitative data
• Conduct research that best addresses the research problem
18Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
19. Feminist Theories
• Approach
• Make problematic women’s diverse situations and the
institutions that frame those situations
• Gender domination within a patriarchal society
• Establish collaborative, nonexploitative relationships
• Place the researcher within the study so as not to be objective
but transformative
• Gender as a social construct that differs for each individual
• Practice
• Questions relate to centrality of gender in shaping
consciousness
• Any method can be made feminist
19Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
20. Critical Theory
• Assumptions
– Empowering people to transcend the
constrains placed on them by race, class,
gender, and power differences
– Scientific study of social institutions and their
transformation through interpreting meanings
of social life; historical problems of
domination, alienation, and social struggles;
and critique of society
20Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
21. Critical Theory (continued)
• Defined by configuration of methodology
• An example from Ethnography
– Understand changes in how people think,
encourage people to interact, become activists,
examine conditions
– An intensive case study or historically
comparative cases of specific actors
– Formal models
• Substantive theories and topics of the
investigators
21Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
22. 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
and inequities experienced by individuals
• Practice
– Race and racism is in the foreground of all aspects of the
research process
– Challenge the traditional research paradigms, texts, and theories
to explain the experiences of people of color
– Offers transformative solutions if racial, gender and class
subordination
22Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
23. Queer Theory
• Assumptions
• Variety of methods and strategies relate to individual identity
• Explores how identities reproduce and perform in social
forums
• The term “queer theory,” allows for other social elements
including race, class, age etc.
• Challenge and undercut identities as singular, fixed, or
“normal”
• Binary distinctions are inadequate to describe sexual identity
• Practice
• Queer theory is a focus of inquiry rather than a methodology
• In addition to research, artistic and cultural representations
23Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
24. Disability Theories
• Assumptions
– Addresses the meaning of inclusion in schools and
encompasses administrators, teachers and parents who
have children with disabilities
– Interpretive lens: disability as a dimension of human
difference, not a 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.
24Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
25. Using Social Justice Interpretive
Frameworks
• Elements to how interpretive frameworks will
be practiced
– Research focuses on understanding specific
issues or topics
– Research procedures are sensitive to
participants, sites, and power imbalances
– Researchers are respectful of co-construction of
knowledge with participants as true owners of
information
– Research is reported in diverse ways and calls for
societal change
25Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design 4e.
SAGE Publishing, 2018.
