What is research and who is a researcher? Why engage in research and what can be its value? How
do we come to know what lies beyond our horizons? Paradigms of Research for the 21st Century
opens the door for wondering about these and other questions pertaining to the nature and
process of educational research. It offers an insightful and detailed account of Western and
non-Western philosophical traditions and perspectives on reality knowledge and values that
have been responsive to past and present developments of educational research in North America.
These accounts form a paradigm - a system of inquiry a model or a way of knowing.
Empirical-analytic pragmatic interpretive critical poststructuralist and transcendental
paradigms are distinguished as an alternative to a quantitative-qualitative typology of
paradigms in educational research. This book can be used for introductory and advanced research
methods courses at the master's and doctoral levels.
