HD·R1·01 Research
Research Philosophy & Paradigms for Design
The assumptions beneath every research method.
Every research method rests on unstated philosophical assumptions about what counts as knowledge and how it can be validly obtained. This course introduces positivist, interpretivist, and pragmatist research paradigms, and why a design researcher's choice of paradigm shapes every methodological decision that follows.
In Development
This course's full module content is being written. The outline below is final, subscribe for updates when it publishes.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
- 01 Distinguish positivist, interpretivist, and pragmatist research paradigms
- 02 Explain how paradigm choice constrains valid methodological choices downstream
- 03 Identify the paradigm underlying a given piece of design research
- 04 Justify a paradigm choice appropriate to a specific research question
- 05 Recognise the limits of one's own paradigmatic assumptions
- 06 Apply pragmatist reasoning to justify mixed-methods research designs
- Paradigm should be decided before method, not after
- Methods borrowed without paradigmatic justification often misapply their underlying assumptions
- Positivism assumes researcher-independent objective reality
- Quantitative methods align naturally with positivist assumptions
- Interpretivism treats meaning as context-dependent and constructed
- Qualitative methods preserve context that quantitative aggregation would erase
- Pragmatism justifies combining qualitative and quantitative methods
- The research question, not paradigmatic purity, drives method selection
- Unstated paradigms still constrain what a study can validly claim
- Learning to identify paradigm improves critical reading of any research
- Unexamined assumptions still shape research choices
- Naming your own paradigm is a research-maturity milestone, not just an academic exercise