A Paradigm is a Cognitive Road Map

Under construction

I submitted the online paper entitled “Bridges and Barriers: Perspectives from the Road to Nowhere: Locating the ‘Participatory in Research and ‘Research’ in Participatory‘” in June, 2003.

Paradigm, a cognitive road map that encompasses ontology, epistemology and methodology

“The paradigm encompasses ontology (the nature of reality); epistemology (how we know and the relationship between the knower and the known) and the methodology (how we gain knowledge about the world, of which PAR is one approach). A paradigm is socially constructed and depends on a basic set of beliefs that guide action. It is a worldview, a basic set of beliefs that define the nature of the human subject, the relationships between human subject and the world. Paradigmic beliefs depend as much on faith as any philosophical belief. Paradigms can be so inclusive that they encompass worlds within worlds or as narrow as orthodox positivism (Denzin, 1994).”