Chapter 4: Research and Findings of iPEAR
4.1. Research design
To develop a research design, it is crucial to build a rationale for the research paradigm (frame of epistemology and ontology), methodology (frame of logic for methods), methods (choices of wording for quantitative or quantitative methods), data collection and analysis and criteria for evaluating the study results (axiology). A research paradigm is a set of beliefs, values, assumptions, and practices that guide how researchers approach and conduct their studies. It encompasses the worldview and philosophical framework underpinning the researcher’s choices in research design, methodology, data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Different research paradigms lead to different ways of understanding and explaining phenomena and different approaches to generating knowledge.
The interpretivist research paradigm, or the interpretive or qualitative paradigm, is a philosophical approach to research that focuses on understanding the subjective meanings and interpretations that individuals attach to their experiences, actions, and social interactions. It emphasises reality’s contextual and situational nature and seeks to uncover the complexities and nuances of human behaviour and social phenomena.
Interpretivist researchers reject the idea of objective, universal truths that can be detached from the social and cultural contexts in which they emerge. Instead, they emphasise the need to understand how individuals construct their realities and meanings. This paradigm is often employed in studies that explore cultural practices, human experiences, and social interactions (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018; & Creswell & Poth, 2017).
4.1.1 Epistemology & ontology of iPEAR interpretivist research paradigm:
Philosophically, ontology entails making claims about what knowledge is, epistemology is how people know it, axiology is what values go into it, rhetoric is how people write about it, and methodology is studying it (Creswell, 2003, p.6). “To ensure a strong research design, researchers must choose a research paradigm congruent with their beliefs about the nature of reality. Consciously subjecting such beliefs to an ontological interrogation in the first instance will illuminate the epistemological and methodological possibilities that are available” (Mills et al., 2006b, p.26). According to Crotty (1998, p.3), epistemology is “the theory of knowledge embedded in the theoretical perspective and thereby in the methodology”. A constructivist grounded theory (CGT) and its evolution Informed Grounded theory (IGT) recognises that data do not open a window to reality; instead, the ‘discovered’ subjective truths arise from interacting with its temporal, cultural, and structural contexts (Charmaz, 2000). Thus, the researcher takes a snapshot of what is happening at a specific time, in a particular place, from the gaze of specific viewers. Like an eagle flying above, she compares what she sees with other perspecti