Creating The Theoretical

Framework
• Discussion of research philosophy should include the following:
• You need to specify the research philosophy of your study.
• The reasons behind philosophical classifications of the study need to
be provided.
• You need to discuss the implications of your research philosophy on
the research strategy in general and the choice of data collection
methods  in particular.
Research philosophy in the ‘research onion’
Theoretical Framework

Clearly define aims and objectives. These define the space in which your research will sit
and your goals when conducting it. You will need to briefly recap these when you start
writing your theoretical framework, both to remind the reader and so that you can relate
your theory to these overarching aims.
• What theory/theories are you using? Here you need to define and explain each theory
you draw upon and, in doing so, discuss the leading proponents and applications. This
shows that you understand the theory you are going to adopt.
• You then need to spend time critically arguing why you are adopting this particular
theory. There are a lot of potential theories you could use. Why this one? Importantly,
you should relate your choice to the discussions in the literature review and your aims
and objectives.
• Can the theory/theories be broken down into different schools? Which one are you
siding with and why?
• A theory contains a number of concepts. Which will you be drawing upon? Why
these ones? Have you defined them properly? The way you approach this section
will be influenced by your epistemological and ontological perspective and, thus,
whether you use hypotheses or not. If you are using hypotheses, you need to state
them as such
• How do the concepts relate to your aims and objectives?
• Have you clearly stated your ontological and epistemological perspective?
• Are you the first to use this particular theory in this particular way? What benefits or
drawbacks does that bring?
• Can you spot any drawbacks with applying this theory? Does it fail to account for a
particular dimension of a phenomenon? Is it difficult to operationalize?
• How are your concepts related? Are you using them as hypotheses? Or as a model
to make sense of the data? Somewhere in between? Be explicit about how they are
all related and what you plan on doing with them.
 Behind the welter of names – positivism, naturalism, post-positivism,
relativism, feminist standpoint epistemology, foundationalism,
postmodernism, each with an array of sub-species – lie important questions:
Is there a single, absolute truth about educational phenomena, or are there
multiple truth? (Or is the concept of truth itself so problematic as to be of no
value in understanding the world?) Can we count on our senses or on reason,
to distinguish that which is true about the world from that which is false? Are
there methods that can lead us close to understanding, or are there inherent
indeterminancies in all methods? Is knowledge of the world discovered, or
constructed? Can knowledge of the world be evaluated independent of the
social and historical contexts in which it exists, or is it always contingent upon,
or relative to, particular circumstances?
(Pallas, 2003, p.6)
• What methods do you propose to use?
• What methodology governs your choice and use of the methods?
• What theoretical perspective lies behind the methodology in
question?
• What epistemology informs this theoretical perspective?
• Methods – the techniques or procedures used to gather and
analyze data related to some research question of hypothesis
• Methodology – the strategy, plan of action, process or design
lying behind the choice and use of particular methods and
linking the choice and use of methods to desired outcomes.
• Theoretical perspective: the philosophical stance informing the
methodology and thus providing a context for the process and
grounding its logic and criteria.
• Epistemology: the theory of knowledge embedded in the
theoretical perspective and thereby in the methodology. (how
we know what we know)
Why Understand Research Epistemology and
Ontology?
• to understand the interrelationship of the key components of
research (including methodology and methods);
• to avoid confusion when discussing theoretical debates and
approaches to social phenomena; and
• to be able to recognize others’, and defend our own, positions.
Ontology
claims and assumptions that are made about the nature of social
reality, claims about what exists, what it looks like, what units make it
up and how these units interact with each other. In short, ontological
assumptions are concerned with what we believe constitutes social
reality.’ Blaikie, 2000, p. 8
Ontology is the branch of philosophy that studies concepts such as
existence, being, becoming, and reality. It includes the questions of
how entities are grouped into basic categories and which of these
entities exist on the most fundamental level.
Epistemology
the possible ways of gaining knowledge of social reality, whatever it is
understood to be. In short, claims about how what is assumed to exist
can be known. Blaikie, 2000, p. 8
Fish is Fish
by: Leo Lionni
Epistemological Assumptions
• Objectivity believes that knowledge exists whether we are conscious
of it or not.
• Constructionist believes that we come to “know” through our
interactions.
• Subjectivity believes that everyone has a different understanding of
what we know.
What is a paradigm?
"universally recognised scientific achievements that, for a time,
provide model problems and solutions for a community of
researchers", i.e.,
• what is to be observed and scrutinised
• the kind of questions that are supposed to be asked and probed
for answers in relation to this subject
• how these questions are to be structured
• how the results of scientific investigations should be interpreted
• how is an experiment to be conducted, and what equipment is
available to conduct the experiment.
Kuhn, T S (1970) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (2nd Edition) University of Chicago Press.
Section V, pages 43-51
Paradigms
• Frames of reference we use to organize our observations and
reasoning.
• Often implicit, assumed, taken for granted.
• Become entrenched, resisting change
• Shift requires revolutionary change in view
• New paradigms proposes unique ways of seeing and explaining things that
then take hold
Macrotheory and Microtheory
• Macrotheory deals with large, aggregate entities of society or even
whole societies.
• Struggle between economic classes, international relations, interrelations
among major institutions
• Microtheory deals with issues of social life at the level of individuals
and small groups.
• Social interactions, collective deliberation, social perceptions, sense-making
Main components of a Paradigm
• Ontology
• Concerned with Being
• How do you look at reality?
• Epistemology
• Branch of philosophy concerned with the origins, nature, methods and limits
of knowledge?
• Methodology
 Research Paradigms

Derived from Higgs, 2001

(Adapted from Crotty’s 1998 Framework)
Ontology Epistemology Methodology Methods Sources

What’s out
there to
What and
know?
how can
How can we
we know
go about
about it?
acquiring What
knowledge? procedures
can we use Which
to acquire it? data can
we collect?

Adapted from Hay, 2002, pg. 64

Epistemology Theoretical Perspective Methodology Methods
Objectivism Positivism Experimental research Sampling
Constructionism Post-positivism Survey research Measurement and scaling
Subjectivism Interpretivism Ethnography Questionnaire
(and their Symbolic Phenomenological Observation
variants) interactionsim research Participant
Phenomenology Grounded theory Non-participant
Hermeneutics Heuristic inquiry Interview
Pragmatism Action research Focus group
Participatory Discourse analysis Case study
–Critical inquiry Feminist standpoint Life history
–Feminism research Narrative
Postmodernism Case Study Visual ethnographic methods
(etc.) (etc.) Statistical analysis
Data reduction
Theme identification
Comparative analysis
Cognitive mapping
Interpretative methods
Document analysis
Content analysis
Conversation analysis
(etc.)