Dissolving Dualisms: How Two Positivists Engaged with Non-Positivist Qualitative Methodology

This is the story of how a chemical engineer and a medical microbiologist overcame their positivist training and deeply held disciplinary attitudes to engage with non-positivist qualitative methodology. Through a series of facilitated reflections they explored what helped and hindered their transiti...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Carolyn Oliver PhD-C, Susan Nesbit PhD, Niamh Kelly PhD
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2013-02-01
Series:International Journal of Qualitative Methods
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691301200106
Description
Summary:This is the story of how a chemical engineer and a medical microbiologist overcame their positivist training and deeply held disciplinary attitudes to engage with non-positivist qualitative methodology. Through a series of facilitated reflections they explored what helped and hindered their transition from positivist to non-positivist inquiry. To move forward they needed to acknowledge the extent and nature of the transition they were making, find metaphors to dissolve troubling dualisms, and balance a desire to reach out to others with the need to manage the very real sense of vulnerability that came with embracing subjectivity. Their experiences suggest that pragmatism may be a useful bridging framework for the growing number of academics from the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines turning to qualitative methodologists for help to move beyond positivist research.
ISSN:1609-4069