Buying Into Qualitative Research: Discipline and Resistance

• In Event: 35.024 - Our Stories, Our Voices: Testimonios and Critical Narratives for Justice

Abstract

Different ways of knowing enable social scientists to research the social world in its complexity, therefore researchers should be well versed in multiple research approaches and paradigms. Our study aims to understand the epistemological views graduate students hold prior to receiving instruction on paradigms and how they come to appreciate and value (or not) other paradigmatic views through their learning experiences. Analysis of narratives by students enrolled in an introductory qualitative research methods course demonstrates the persistence of dominant paradigms, development of students' learning and appreciation for non-positivist paradigms, and how this process involves resistance, self-reflection, fear, tensions, and regression. We conclude with a discussion of the study's implications for teaching qualitative research methods and designing graduate program curricula.

Authors

• Sebnem Cilesiz, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• Thomas Greckhamer, Louisiana State University