Critical / Transformational
This paradigm is most closely associated with the intellectual history that includes Critical Theory, Marxism, Feminism, Critical Pedagogy, and Critical Realism. Within
critical approaches, axiology, positionality and values are foregrounded. In contrast with the detached, “objective” observations associated with the positivist researcher, critical approaches make explicit the intention for research to act as a transformative or emancipatory force at a social level. This might involve the way a research project is framed (for instance, as motivated by an interest in social justice) or the kind of data that is collected (e.g. metrics on age, gender, sexuality, or race that can be used to illuminate inequality). Methods used by critical researchers are often interdisciplinary, combining Positivist and Interpretivist techniques to describe contextual and historical factors. In addition, there are some methods which belong distinctively to the critical paradigm (see below).
Critical Methods: Action research; Critical ethnology; Deconstruction; Dialectics; Field research; Textual analysis