Abstract

This chapter envisions (post)graduate educational research as transformative professional development. It critiques dominant, culturally decontextualized research in Nepal—rooted in positivist and Western worldviews—and advocates for multi-paradigmatic design spaces. Using the metaphor of ‘research for a greater good,' it theorizes three forms: informing (positivist), reforming (interpretive), and transforming (critical/postmodern). A synergistic space integrating interpretivist, criticalist, and postmodernist paradigms is proposed to foster self-initiated change and prepare educational leaders as change agents. Drawing on a decade of practice within a transformative research community, the chapter presents reflective graduate research cases using arts-based and auto/ethnographic methodologies. These illustrate how multi-paradigmatic inquiry enables critical self-reflection, pedagogical transformation, and the envisioning of inclusive, equitable educational futures.