l20 CHAPTER 6

Investigators who share a theoretical perspective—also called a paradigm
(Kuhn, 1970) or a research program (Lakatos, 1970)—make assumptions
about some problems in order to focus attention on others that they feel are
important. They may use this approach to direct research to answer questions
and explain empirical results in ways that provide further insight into the the—
ory rather than identifying additional problems. “Don’t study that topic, you
won’t learn anything interesting from it” can actually mean, “It won’t help
develop the theory.”

When investigators regularly question their assumptions, they keep their
minds open and provide themselves with new problems to solve. One simple
way to do this is to think about seemingly obvious observations as hypotheses

 

Criteria of Research Quality

 

Shared Methods
Intersubjectivity
Reliability
Validity

Comparable Presentations
Tenability
Testability

Controlled Results

Specifiability
Generalizability

 

 

 

rather than facts. For example, saying, “It may be a street corner” instead of “It
is a street corner” generates questions whose answers will be new knowledge:
What, precisely, is a street corner? Is this really one? How do different people
define street corners.> How do street corners differ?

Creative investigators know how to keep avenues open for exploration.
Using shared methods, presenting findings comparably, and knowing how to use
results to solve problems all help make research explorations learning experiences.

SHARED METHODS

When a group of people jointly understand a set of research methods and use
them to solve problems, they can identify ways to improve the quality of their
research. For this to occur, investigators make explicit their methods, the way
they use these methods, and the conclusions drawn from using them. As a result
of the sharing this explicitness makes possible, members of the group can (1)