Positivism, Post-Positivism, Constructivism, Critical, Post-Structuralism

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Illustration: Positivism, Post-Positivism, Constructivism, Critical, Post-Structuralism
  • Positivism
  • Post Positivism
  • Constructivism
  • Critical
  • Post Structural
  • Philosophy
  • Axiology – Nature & Status
  • Ethics
  • Aesthetics
  • Ontology – what is really real
  • Epistemology – study of knowledge

Positivism

Illustration: Positivism
PositivismPositivism
OntologyEpistemologyAxiologyMethodologyProductExamples
Reality is there & understandHow world is ordered, knower is distinct from worldLogic, Disengage, absoluteExperiment, Survey, CorrelationFacts theoriesBiology

Mathematics

  • Absolute truth to discover
  • Objective
  • Generalisable
  • Replicable
  • Scientific
  • Does not means optimism – like red flowers but test report can be positive
  • Data Robot (Star Trek) , Sophia Robot, Spock (Star Trek) – Only logical
  • Delhi – I can measure climate, population, history, demographics – compete picture of London with better tools.
  • Frontliners – found data, applied science, research and give suggestions (country wise analysis) – Impact of Covid-19

Post-Positivism

Post-PositivismPost-Positivism
OntologyEpistemologyAxiologyMethodologyProductExamples
Really exist, limit to our capabilitiesApproximation of realityReason, dispassionate, universalQualitative methods, frequency and statisticsGeneralizations, grounded theoryPsychology

Medicine

Illustration: Post-Positivism
  • What is Nature of reality?
  • Reality is there but there might be limits to our ability to capture it
  • Researcher is not perfect – approximations
  • Karl Popper – feasibility – all swans are white but 1 single black swan can disprove the theory that all swans are white.
  • Reason, neutral and universal – Picard (Captain of Star Trek) , Chandragupta Maurya, Akbar heard of Birbal
  • Post-positivism – Delhi is sprawling – growing – picture is never complete even if we say Delhi is growing – it՚s easier to say what it is not
  • Front Liners – Get feedback from everyone, reject some and prepare a plan (Impact of Covid-19) – one path for everyone – PPE for all, isolation, quarantine

Constructivism

ConstructivismConstructivism
OntologyEpistemologyAxiologyMethodologyProductExamples
Multiple realities are constructed, made by people in social waysKnowledge as human constructionRationality, human, contextualNaturalistic qualitativeCase studies, narrativesPsychoanalysis

Education

Illustration: Constructivism
  • Context dependent
  • Socially constructed
  • Subjective
  • Understand context and experience
  • Reality is made by people in social ways and it is not a product of mutual understanding
  • Knowledge is co-conducted – researcher is involved in research – building theory and sharing and participants
  • Rationality, Human and contextual – Martin Luther, BR Ambedkar, Nelson Mandela (how they grew) , John Rawls Theory of Justice
  • Meaning b/w cultures – world is not black and white but shades of grey
  • Delhi City as human activity hub – complex multiple communities – local communities
  • Front liners - problems faced and facilities that we can give (Impact of Covid-19) – suggestions will not be same for all – separate for all (red, orange, green … . Village/city/tribal … . Congested/uncongested) . Decision at individual level with numerous suggestions

Critical

Critical TheoryCritical Theory
OntologyEpistemologyAxiologyMethodologyProductExamples
Power relations - difference in race, class, gender, produced by tensionsKnowledge is value laden & politicalCritique, social justice, transformativeTransformative inquiryValue mediated critiquesSociology

Politics

Illustration: Critical
  • Critical Theory - Chanakya, Martin Luther King
  • Reality is product of power relations and it is produced through these tensions
  • Social relations
  • Knowledge is political and value laden
  • Idea is to change it
  • Social justice
  • Critique, social justice and transformative
  • Delhi as a seat of power – inequality of rich and poor and power pushing towards nation – Delhi must change for better
  • Frontliners – change system for doctors and bring robots (Impact of Covid-19) – how much work is mechanical or repetitive
  • Transformative inquiry is a theoretical model designed to facilitate the inquiry of important and meaningful relationships

Post Structuralism

Post StructuralismPost Structuralism
OntologyEpistemologyAxiologyMethodologyProductExamples
Ascribe meaning to meaningless worldNo truth to be known, Knowledge is contextualDiscursive, narrativeDeconstruction

Multi-voiced studies

GenealogiesLiterary Analysis

Gender Studies

Illustration: Post Structuralism

Life is product of discourse – stories we tell

Individual Studies

  • John Dewey – education is different for all – progressive education
  • Rabindranath Tagore – Shanti Niketan (individual story)
  • Delhi City – not stable construct but Idea that evolved over time and means different things to different people. Not understood as one thing but mix and mess of ideas.
  • Front liners – family issue – life of each doctor (Impact of Covid-19)
  • Deconstruction: A deconstructive approach to criticism involves discovering, recognizing and understanding the underlying and unspoken and implicit assumptions, ideas and frameworks of cultural forms such as works of art
  • A discursive approach enables you to explore the construction of meanings in human interaction.
Illustration: Individual Studies
Individual Studies Individual Studies
OntologyEpistemology
PositivismOne reality or TruthKnowledge is measured
ConstructivismMultiple realitiesReality must be Interpreted
Post StructuralismMeaning to MeaninglessContextual & unstable

✍ Manishika