The chapter is divided into six sections. The first and second sections expose readers to the origin of social constructionist philosophy and the reasons behind its emergence respectively. The third section discusses the key tenets of the social constructionist philosophy based on ontology, epistemology, axiology, methodology, and rhetoric. A comparison of social constructionist and other methods is done in Section 4, and Section 5 addresses the unique characteristics of ideal qualitative projects. The chapter is concluded by a question and answer section where important questions about the research philosophy are suggested and answered.
Top1 Key Concepts
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Research Philosophy – positions taken in research that shape the way researches are undertaken. Worldview/paradigm/approach may be used in place of philosophy.
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Qualitative Philosophy – the approach/worldview/paradigm/philosophy for qualitative studies is called social constructionist.
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Epistemology – the acquisition of knowledge in research.
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Ontology – the nature of reality in research.
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Axiology – values in research.
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Methodology – the use of deductive and inductive methods in research.
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Rhetoric – the nature of language used in research reports.
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Tenets – core principles of a phenomenon.
Top2 Learning Outcomes
By the end of this chapter, readers should be able to;
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Trace the origin of qualitative research philosophy.
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Narrate the rationale behind the emergence of social constructionist.
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Describe the tenets of social constructionist philosophy.
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Make a comparison of social constructionist with other philosophies.
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Grasp key areas to address in ideal qualitative projects.
Case Study
David, a fourth year student at University of Zimbabwe planned for a qualitative project with Rozvi people staying in the Southern parts of Zimbabwe. In his project proposal, David claimed that his study would adopt a social constructionist approach. The study proposed to use three major methods of data collection; structured interview, document analysis and a likert scale. He also proposed to adopt random and convenience sampling to pick samples from the study population. David’s proposal could not be approved by his supervisors, they were convinced that David proposed some methods for positivists in his proposal. By the end of reading this chapter you should be able to identify methods for positivists that were proposed by David.
3 Introduction
David had little knowledge of research philosophies that is why he proposed wrong methods for a social constructionist project. Research ideologies vary according to the nature of the study. The qualitative researchers subscribe to a paradigm different from quantitative specialists. There are several philosophies in research but there are three popular ones. Social constructionist, positivist and pragmatist are popular philosophies in research. Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods studies are linked to social constructionist, positivist and pragmatist philosophies respectively. However, the key focus of this textbook is on discussing qualitative methods and data processing. This chapter is divided into the following sections;
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Genesis of Qualitative Research Philosophy
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Reasons for the Emergence of Social Constructionist Philosophy
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Traits of Social Constructionist Philosophy
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Tenets of Qualitative Research
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Key Areas to Address in Ideal Qualitative Projects
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Question and Answer Session