The four worldviews according to Cresswell (2013) are postpositivism (akin to quantitative methods), constructivism (akin to qualitative methods), advocacy (akin to advocating action), and pragmatism (akin to mixed methods). There are positives and negatives for each world view. For pragmatists, they use what truth and what methods from anywhere that works at the time they need it, to get the results they need. Though the pragmatist research style takes time to conduct. The advocacy places importance on creating an action item for social change to diminish inequity gaps between asymmetric power relationships like those that exist with class structure and minorities. Though this research is noble, the moral arc of history bends towards justice, but very slowly, it took centuries for race equality to be where it is at today, it took over 60 years for gender equality, and 40 years for LGBT equality. Yet, there are still inequalities amongst these groups and the majority that have yet to be resolved. For instance: Equal Pay for Equal Work for All, Employment/Housing Non-Discrimination for LGBT, Racial Profiling, etc. The constructivist viewpoint researchers seek to understand the world around them through subjective means. They use their own understanding and interpretation of historical and cultural settings of participants to shape their interpretation of the open-ended data they collect. This can lead to an interpretation that is shaped by the researcher’s background and not representative of the whole situation at hand. Finally, postpositivism looks at the world in numbers, knowing their limitation that not everything can be described in numbers, they choose to propose an alternative hypothesis where they can either accept or reject the hypothesis. Numbers are imperfect and fallible.
My personal world view is akin to a pragmatist world view. My background in math, science, technology, and management help me synthesize ideas from multiple fields to drive innovation. It has allowed me to learn rapidly because I can see how one field ties to the other and makes me more adaptable. However, I also lean a bit more strongly to the math and science side of myself, which is a postpostivism view.
Resource:
- Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, 4th Edition. [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781483321479/epubcfi/6/24
Dr. Skylar (Sky) Hernandez 