This article represents a paradigm analysis of the characteristics of arts-based research (ABR) in an effort to reconceptualize the potential of arts-based practices in generating new curriculum approaches for general education practice and the development of the learner. Arts-based theoretical models--or art for scholarship's sake--are…

In this article, the author challenges the validity and usefulness of the concept of "paradigm," as this term has been used in the social sciences generally, and specifically in the debates over research methods. He emphasizes that in criticizing what he sees as the misuse of the paradigm concept, he is not arguing for dismissing or ignoring…

This paper aims to discuss how science and technology studies (STS) can inform disability studies and challenge dominant approaches, such as the medical and the social models, in the ordering and representation of disability. Disability studies and STS have followed somewhat parallel paths in the history of ideas. From a positivist approach to…

When a doctoral student plans to conduct qualitative education research, the aspect of the dissertation that often becomes problematic is determining which theoretical paradigm(s) might frame the study. In this article, the author discusses how he resolved the quandary through eclecticism. The author begins by describing briefly the purpose of his…

The relationship between the philosophy, theory, and methods of different research paradigms is explored in this article. Specific theoretical perspectives, critical theory, postmodernism, critical race theory, queer theory, and feminist theory are explored in the context of their political values and implications for qualitative research.…

Elliot Eisner has sketched the outlines of the move toward plurality in educational research in an essay that embraces, perhaps unintentionally, a postmodern orientation that has the potential to disrupt the historically monolithic character of educational research. Eisner's discussion is expanded to suggest that qualitative research in…

Claims that regardless of the dilemmas qualitative researchers face given the implications of postmodern critique, qualitative research elicits an understanding of communication practices in ways that other kinds of research cannot. Proposes a model of research practices to help researchers understand qualitative research as a social activity and…

Until the 1960s the rule of science was a characteristic of modernity in academic life. Since then, a postmodern trend has been running counter to a faith in a universal and objective scientific methodology. Postmodernists have taught us that there are no single truths, that there are many valuable perspectives, and that the line between the…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on approaches to research in human resource development (HRD). "HRD, Feminism, and Adult Education: A Foundation for Collaborative Approaches to Research and Practice" (Yvonne M. Johnson) identifies common interests among HRD professionals, feminists, and practitioners in the field of…