Philosophical assumptions, paradigms and worldviews in mixed methods research

so in this short video I want to talk about something that many of you have asked me before namely if you're conducting a mixed-methods study mixed-methods research where you have both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection what kind of worldviews or philosophical assumptions should you discuss or should you consider so in this video I'll talk about this and also I will suggest a philosophical stance a philosophical worldview which in my opinion is a very suitable one for this kind of studies and generally something for you to consider and maybe read about so to summarize the problem the issue with worldviews and a mixed-methods study as I explained in my previous videos that I will link to from this video we have these traditionally two main philosophical world views or paradigms so I talked about interpretivism and I talked about positivism and they are quite contrasting and as I explained traditionally we tend to think of qualitative research in terms of interpretivism and quantitative research in terms of positivism so to briefly discuss these paradigms positivism as I said before is something that values and emphasizes the scientific inquiry so being objective being an objective observer it also emphasizes the world as something relatively stable so a kind of a structure and therefore when we investigate this world we want to be as I said objective we want to be a neutral observer we don't want to influence what we are observing and therefore the most effective and valuable methods for positivists are quantitative methods so quantitative methods of data collection as such as observations or questionnaires because we don't want to be biased we don't want our personal interpretations to basically ruin everything and on the other hand interpretivist are quite different so they see the world as something quite flexible and dynamic and changing and something that to a very great extent depends on on the people who live in this world so of course the only way to explore this world and to understand it is to talk to people so so this is quite a contrast to positivists who believe that the only thing that may result from talking to people is bias and generally mess with our study so here an interpreter based tradition is quite the opposite so we really want to gain a very deep understanding of these individual perspectives because it would believe that the some of these individuals and these individual perspectives together create and make this whole reality around us so the problem or the issue with mixed methods research and and worldviews is as follows so if we have these quantitative and qualitative methods combined in a mixed method study and these methods are traditionally associated with quite contrasting worldviews what do we do about it which world view do we do we choose or how to explain that how do we justify it and here are two main approaches to dissolving to addressing this problem exist they are quite different and quite contrasting but both of them are in fact quite popular so it's not like one of them is more controversial than the other and the first approach argues that what do we do when we have a mixed method study so let's say we have an explanatory study where we start with quantitative methods which are then followed by qualitative methods so let's say we start a study with a questionnaire so according to this first approach what happens is that we start the study with assuming this positivist worldview so again the one that's more about being scientific and objective and and this stable world and then as we move towards the second phase of the study so let's say we have interviews and focus groups what happens is that we are making a shift towards a more flexible or more interpretivist approach and interpretivist worldview so in practice if we talk about our method and we talked about our study and then our our worldviews what do we do is we cover these two different worldviews and explain how we started it with this and then we made a shift towards the other and as I said this is not a controversial approach and many scholars many people tend to agree with it and like it but to be honest I personally do not really like this idea of making this shift from one worldview to the other and the reason is that I think that we generally have one worldview and and this is not to say that I'm saying we only can have one belief or one attitude towards something but but one worldview even if it's a very flexible worldview where where we accept both you know both ideas so both the importance of scientific inquiry and being objective and the importance of individual perspectives and individual beliefs and experiences it's still I would describe it as one flexible or general or inclusive worldview to me by definition of world these two contrasting worldviews I mean that they are in fact contrasting so how can we believe one thing at the beginning of this study just because just because the methods at that stage suit what do we want to do or achieve in the study and then we make a switch or shift towards a completely contrasting worldview which in fact tends to disagree with the first one and tends to discredit the claims made so people following that worldview usually don't really agree with what people following the other one say so to me as I said this is a conflicting situation I don't really like this approach and the second approach to addressing this issue and this is something that has emerged already when I was discussing the first approach the second approach argues that we should in fact choose one worldview no matter how flexible or inclusive it is but we should choose one worldview that fix that matches and suits all the assumptions guiding underlying this study so it matches the methods and and the assumptions and believe that these methods reflect and the worldview that these people quite often put forward is called pragmatism and this is something that I want you to know about not everybody knows about pragmatism but learning about pragmatism when I was a student pretty much saved my life because I was extremely confused with this whole idea of different worldviews and also I was conducting mixed-methods study so when I learned about pragmatism I actually realized this is exactly how I feel about the study about investigations about the world so pragmatism is known as a very flexible approach and worldview and it emphasizes and encourages to to basically make use of whatever works in this study so so the most important part the most important aim is simply is to answer the research questions and this is something again if you've watched my videos I keep saying that and even without thinking about worldviews I still I naturally keep saying that to answer our research questions is the most important thing especially when doing our data analysis so and this is in fact what pragmatism argues so this is the main the priority is to answer the research questions and to to use whatever means possible just to achieve that goal without necessarily thinking about this dichotomy this distinction between positivism interpreters and possibly other approaches simply do whatever you think will be effective whatever whatever whatever you think will help you answer your research questions and collect the data that you need in order to answer it and to describe the assumptions of pragmatism and even more philosophical terms basically pragmatism recognizes that the reality is constructed by individuals in fact but at the same time this is a reconstruction of something relatively stable that exists so like I said this is a very philosophical and abstract statement but this is exactly why pragma values both the assumptions of interpretivist views and positivist views so so it is constructed by the reality is constructed by individuals so this is very interpreters thing to say but at the same time they acknowledge that these are reconstructions of something relatively stable that exists which is typically what would what positivist would say moreover a pragmatist emphasized the importance of empirical observation which is again something traditionally associated with our positivism but at the same time they they stress that these observations rely on the researchers interpretation of these observation observations so this is again our interpretivism here and finally pragmatists recognize that there exist certain established stable social structures this is again our positivist idea but at the same time they acknowledge the role of people and establishing and constructing these these social structures which is a very interpretive thing to say so so as I explained this is really a mix of of certain assumptions from both positivist and interpreters approaches as I said I do encourage you to look into pragmatism especially if you're struggling with choosing your worldview and I know that a lot of you are struggling a lot of you have asked me this question I know that usually you are required to talk about worldviews and philosophical assumptions especially if you're a student and at the same time sometimes it's simply confusing and this is how I felt when I was a student I felt that I kind of agreed with with both so I kind of thought okay it is important to talk to people it is important to know their their ideas and their reviews but I don't necessarily think that this is everything and and this is the only thing that constructs the reality around us and I also agreed that of course there must be something stable and this is why I decided to use questioners in my study as well although traditionally and naturally I wouldn't say I'm a quantitative type of person but this doesn't mean that I argue that to use quantitative methods is completely useless I hope that you found this video useful if you're new to this channel this channel is all about helping you develop and conduct research that will make an impact so consider subscribing and liking this video to help it get found online you

Channel: Research with Dr Kriukow

Views: 1,660

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: worldviews in research, philosophical worldviews in research, philosophical assumptions in research, philosophical assumptions qualitative research, philosophical assumptions in mixed methods research, paradigms in, paradigms in research, paradigms in qualitative research, paradigms in mixed methods research, philosophical worldviews in mixed methods research, education, positivism interpretivism, positivism and interpretivism in research, mixed methods, pragmatism in research

Id: ym56T059iAM

Length: 11min 47sec (707 seconds)

Published: Thu May 07 2020