Epistemology of Paradigms for Positivism, Interpretivism, and Action Research in Educational Research: A Literature Review

Abstract

This paper elaborates on three popular paradigms in educational research: positivism, interpretive, and action research. I epistemologically elucidate the three paradigms through literature reviews and provide ideas and criticisms. Positivistic with their objective postulate that explains empirically are usually related to behaviour, interpretive with its contextual power, and action research with participatory arguments and dialectics process. This paper does not claim that there is only one best approach to educational research. However, it provides a philosophical overview of each paradigm.