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The primary worldviews are post-positivism, constructivism, advocacy/participatory, and pragmatism.
Social constructivism, often paired with interpretivism, is a commonly used approach to qualitative research, such as advocacy/participatory research.
The Post-positivist Worldview aligns with traditional research practices and is commonly associated with quantitative research. It is also called the scientific method, positivist/post-positivist research, empirical science, and post-positivism.
The pragmatic worldview emphasises actions, situations, and consequences rather than antecedent conditions, as post-positivism does. Its primary focus is on discovering practical solutions to problems and implementing them effectively. Researchers prioritise solving the research problem by utilising all available approaches to comprehend it rather than emphasising specific methods (Kotari, 2004).
Exploring paradigm alternatives can provide a more profound comprehension of research methodologies (Tab. 2). Quantitative research depends on statistically analysed numerical data, whereas qualitative research utilises non-numerical data. These differences have sparked debates, known as 'paradigm wars', as the perceived incompatibility between quantitative and qualitative research has led to disagreements.
Quantitative and qualitative research concepts are deeply rooted in researchers' philosophies and worldviews, also known as epistemologies or assumptions. Quantitative research is commonly referred to as "realist" or "positivist," while qualitative research is associated with a "subjectivist" perspective.
Realist researchers believe that their work reveals an objective reality that already exists. To uncover this truth, they maintain that objective research methods must be employed, often drawing on techniques derived from natural sciences and adapted to social sciences.
Positivism represents the most radical manifestation of this worldview. Its adherents assert that the universe operates under unchanging principles of cause and effect. Nonetheless, we cannot entirely distance ourselves from what we are studying since we are all integral components of the world we are examining. Those who subscribe to subjectivism emphasize the significance of human subjectivity in the research process. They recognize that observing reality has a transformative effect on it, leading subjectivists to adopt a more relativistic stance.
Quantitative and qualitative research methods may be fundamentally incompatible when examining the two perspectives we have presented. Qualitative research encompasses a wide range of distinct methodologies, including participant observation, interviews, case studies, and ethnographic research.
Post-positivism, Experiential Realism and Pragmatism
Post-positivist thinkers understand the limitations of viewing the world as unbiased observers and acknowledge that natural science cannot govern all social research. Rather than pursuing absolute truth, post-positivists aim to present the most precise representation of reality possible. The principle of falsifiability, introduced by Popper, asserts that a theory's potential to be proven false is crucial in driving scientific inquiry. This implies that a theory's testability, whether through quantitative or qualitative means and its subsequent ability to be refuted or revised, are the fundamental components that propel investigation forward. Consequently, scientific inquiry is more concerned with combating errors and fallacies rather than establishing absolute truths (Burkholder et al., 2019).
Post-positivist social science focuses on our findings' dependability and capacity to anticipate results. Whether they specialize in quantitative or qualitative methods, researchers frequently take a practical research approach, using a range of techniques tailored to the issue at hand (Haig, 2017). Occasionally, a mixed-methods approach incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methods is the most suitable course of action. Nevertheless, quantitative methods are the only means to analyse numerical changes accurately.
