Ontology of Research

 

On the question of what is a reality, the interpretativists believe that it is socially constructed (Creswell, 2003; Mertens, 2009) and that there are as many intangible realities as there are people constructing them. Reality is, therefore, mind-dependent and a personal or social construct. Do you believe, for instance, that witches exist? If you do, it is your personal reality, a way in which you try to make sense of the world around you. Reality is, in this sense, limited to context, space, time and individuals or group in a given situation and cannot be generalized into one common reality. These assumptions are a direct challenge to the positivist’s assumption about the existence of a tangible external reality. The assumptions legitimize conceptions of realities from all cultures. There are individual realities as well as group-shared realities. Of interest is how these assumptions about the nature of reality are built into the research process. 

 

 

Epistemology of Research 

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Constructivists believe that knowledge is subjective because it is socially constructed and mind-dependent. Truth lies in the human experience. Statements on what is true or false are, therefore, culture-bound, historically and context-dependent, although some may be universal. Within this context, communities’ stories, belief systems and claims of spiritual and earth connections find space as legitimate knowledge.