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Foundations of Inquiry
Linking Paradigms and Methodologies in Social Research
- Guoping Zhao - Oklahoma State University, USA
- Lucy E. Bailey - Oklahoma State University, USA
November 2025 | SAGE Publications, Inc
When researchers adopt a methodology, they bring to the research project the philosophical and theoretical assumptions infused within that methodology. The paradigm shaping that methodology describes the researcher’s view of the human world and social life. This book is about paradigms and how they connect to methodologies. The authors delve into the historical development and theoretical assumptions of a rich body of paradigms and the logical implications they have provided to help form, support, and justify different methodologies for social research. The book contains a number of pedagogical features including examples of published research, discussion of the issues related to each paradigm and the connections between them, and review questions and prompts to help deepen understanding.
Introduction and Overview
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Part I
Chapter 1: The Legacy of Positivism in Social Research
Chapter 2: Post-Positivism
Part II
Chapter 3: General Interpretivism
Chapter 4: Phenomenology
Chapter 5: Hermeneutics
Chapter 6: Symbolic Interactionism
Part III
Chapter 7: Critical Theory
Chapter 8: Critical Race Theory
Chapter 9: Feminism
Chapter 10: Philosophical Grounding for Mixed Methods Research
Part IV
Chapter 11: Post-Structuralism
Chapter 12: Indigenous Paradigms
References
Index
This book dives into the importance of understanding your paradigm and approach to research before starting a project, thus providing students with a good foundation to conduct high quality research.
Northern Illinois University
