KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY

School of Education
EDUC 620 Research Methods

Post Positivisim
By

Dammar Singh Saud

Bibas Thapa
Binod Chaudhary
MPhil in ELE_2022 Batch_KUSOED
11
 POST-POSITIVISM

• Positivist world view: ordered, controllable, predictable,

standardized, mechanistic, deterministic, stable,
objective, rational, impersonal, largely inflexible etc.
• Post-positivism challenges and supersedes positivism
• Our knowledge of the world is not absolute but partial,
conjectural, falsifiable, challengeable, provisional,
probabilistic and changing. (Popper, 1968, 1980)
22
 POST-POSITIVISM

• Consider both quantitative and qualitative methods

• Theories and facts are fallible (social construction)
• Multiple external realities
• Probabilistic Knowledge
• Undermines the foundationalism of empiricism
• Theory-laden / value-laden
• Tentative speculation, multiple perspectives etc.
33
 POST-POSITIVISM

• Class observation- A student winking at the teacher

(A sign of understanding - theory of cognition; a sign of
physical problem- Tourette’s syndrome; a sign of friendliness
(a theory of interpersonal non-verbal behavior)
• The underdetermination of theory by empirical evidence
• The community of scholars in validating warrants for
knowledge
• 44
COMMENTS
&
FEEDBACK!
55
THANK YOU!!!

66