Interpretive Paradigm

Vicky Fauteux & Savithiri Ratnapalan CTL 1018 Winter 2017

Aim/Objectives• To share our interpretation of interpretive research with regards to

• Paradigms and assumptions

• Origins and what it means

• Growth over the years and scope

• How is it conducted

• Purposes, uses and limitations

ParadigmsViews that will affect research questions, strategy, data collection, analysis methods and evaluation of research.

It is also a set of assumptions shared within a research community

•Positivism

• Interpretivist (constructivist)

•Critical research

Paradigm properties

• Ontology: Nature of reality – Fundamental beliefs about the empirical world we conduct research on.

• Epistemology: the relationship between the researcher and the reality– the reasoning process by which researchers perform research.

To Recap Positivist research

Ontologically: Our world is ordered and regular, not random. There exist universal

laws that can be studied and understood.

Epistemologically: We can investigate the world objectively through experiments.

• The scientific method trying to discover regular laws/ patterns in our universe.

• Principles: valid, reliable, objective (no bias) and generalizable

The scientific method cycle(Positivism)

• Formulate theory about some observed aspect of the world. • Derive hypothesis.• Test hypothesis objectively.• Observe results.• Confirm or refute hypothesis.• Accept, modify or reject theory.

Interpretive Research

Understanding + meaning-making,

However, the kind of understanding being sought is determined by the researchers depending on their assumptions and methods

‘No facts, only interpretations’ – Nietzschean (Bhattacharya, 2008, p. 3)

Issues with PositivismPositivism Interpretivism

Ontology(nature of reality) in Interpretivism

No direct access to real worldNo single external reality

• People constructs their own reality based on “subjective principles peculiar to that person” (Sipe & Constable, 1996, p. 158)

• All knowledge is socially constructed (Denzin, 2008, p. 315)

Epistemology in Interpretivism• Reality understood through ‘perceived’ knowledge • Research focuses on the specific and concrete(not on generalizability)

• Seeking to understand specific context

• The researcher thinks critically, historically and biographically (Denzin, 2002)

Interpretisivm

• Aim: understanding interpretation

• Theory-Practice relationship: From practice to theory- inductive

• Researcher’s role: May be outsider or participant, usually does not try to

influence

• Researcher participant relationship: Cooperation, still you

• Reflection: What, How (and sometimes Why)

What do studies using interpretative theories examine?

• Interpretive studies examine how problematic, turning-point experiences are organized,

perceived, constructed, and given meaning by interacting individuals.

Note : Interpretivism as a qualitative research paradigm ( methodological - a way to do an

inquiry) and interpretive theories (social theories – a way of conceptualizing and theorizing

social power, not necessarily empirical studies with data etc. are different concepts.

Early studies in naturalistic settings evolved to…

Researcher’s meanings (+ ‘understanding’) Co-created meaning

Local meanings/ Emancipatory knowledge

Paradigm shifts simplified• Positivist criticism

– Research is removed from reality– The existence of multiple realities– Meaning being socially constructed– The claims of validity, objectivity and generalizability

• Interpretive paradigm with its emphasis on individuals, meaning and understanding developed and naturalistic inquiry developed within it

• Interpretative paradigm ended up being a collection of everything that was not positivist and other paradigms such as constructivism, critical, feminism and post structuralism developed from it.

Decolonization & the evolution of interpretative research

Ethnomethodoly

Interpretive paradigms have expanded and have shifted from colonizing post-positivist theories.

Other paradigms such as ‘critical’ ‘feminism’ ‘post-structural’ paradigms developed from the interpretive paradigms.

Phenomenology

Positivist & post-positivist models

Constructivist–interpretive models

Interpretative Research Communities

Cultural Studies

Queer Studies,

Indigenous Research Studies,

Ethnic Studies,

Marxist Studies

Interpretive research1. Multiple subjective realities: There is no one truth.

2. Dynamic, socially constructed meaning: meaning is made and changes with context

3. Researcher not neutral.

4. Study involves people in their natural social settings

5. Qualitative data : narratives, songs , metaphors, images, stories.

6. Multiple interpretations: researchers offer more than one explanation.

THE STEPS TO INTERPRETATION

1. Framing the research question2. Deconstructing and analyzing critically prior conceptions of the phenomenon3. Capturing the phenomenon, including locating and situating it in the natural world and

obtaining multiple instances of it4. Bracketing the phenomenon, or reducing it to its essential elements & cutting it loose

from the natural world so that its essential structures & features may be uncovered5. Constructing the phenomenon, or putting the phenomenon back together in terms of

its essential parts, pieces, and structures6. Contextualizing the phenomenon, or relocating the phenomenon back in the natural

social world“The Interpretive Process,” in Norman K. Denzin, Interpretive Interactionism (2nd ed., pp. 70–84). Sage Publications, Inc.

Framing the research question Steps in framing the question

1. Locating, within his or her own personal history, the problematic biographical experience to be studied

2. Discovering how this problem, as a private trouble, is or is becoming a public issue that affects multiple lives, institutions, and social groups

3. Locating the institutional formations or sites where persons with these troubles do things together

4. Beginning to ask not why but how it is that these experiences occur

5. Attempting to formulate the research question into a single statement

Qualitative methods that can be used in interpretative studies : an overview (adapted from

Creswell 1998)

Methods used in interpretative research

Depend on disciplines, the objective of the study or research question

• Ethnographic Methods

• Classic Traditional Interviews

• Case Studies

• Focus Groups

• Observational Studies Apart From Ethnographies,

• Action research

• Analyses Of Cultural Records, Archival Documents, Artifacts, Visual Materials, Multimedia Texts, Or Personal Experiences.

It is advisable for researchers to use as many of as possible and triangulate data

Interpretive Criteria• Interpretive materials are evaluated in terms of the following criteria:

1. Do they illuminate the phenomenon as lived experience?2. Are they based on thickly contextualized materials?3. Are they historically and relationally grounded?4. Are they processual and interactional?5. Do they engulf what is known about the phenomenon?6. Do they incorporate prior understandings of the phenomenon?7. Do they cohere and produce understanding?8. Are they unfinished?

Challenges to interpretative research

Although all research conducted in the interpretative paradigm cannot be grouped together, researchers should consider and work around some of the following potential challenges

• Time consuming to design the study, collect data and analysis• May be expensive (time, money and emotional costs)• Challenges to obtaining ethics approval• Challenges to obtaining funding and publication ( getting better now)

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So make convey the following in interpretative research studies ( or any qualitative research)• Artful design & explanation/reason for every design choice

• Creativity in use of methods & techniques•Many approaches ,Scope varies widely•Different assumptions: what we can know & how we can know •No single gold standard•Research question will drive choice of methods

• Reflexivity• Elegant expression• Strategic disarmament

Thank You!We hope you find this presentation useful.

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What is your interpretation of this picture?

Savithiri &Vicky