Epistemology

Introduction

Epistemology refers to a branch of philosophy that which is concerned with justified

belief and knowledge. Epistemology attempts to answer questions such as what differentiates

inadequate knowledge (false) to adequate knowledge (true), what are the limits and structure

of knowledge, what are the sufficient and necessary conditions of knowledge? What

makes justified beliefs justifiable? Practically questions that epistemology seeks to answer,

translates into matters of scientific methodology: how can an individual develop models or

theories that are superior to competing theories (Roots 2007).

Epistemology and research

In research, an epistemological stance will influence how one chooses a

research topic as well as the methodology and methods you use. Epistemology is concerned

with the limitations of knowledge, nature and sources. Epistemological orientations

determine and shapes how we view the world, and of reality (Roots 2007). They too provide

researchers with guiding principles, from where researchers can base their methodologies. As

such, the epistemological positions relates closely with methodological approaches, and they

determine the process from the point that they allow researchers to come up with questions,

design the study as well as to choose the correct research strategies (Sedgwick 1990). Some

of the cross-culture researches are based on a realistic point of view at epistemological level.

Epistemological realism makes assumptions that the external reality accessible, cognitively to

researcher. The realism epistemology portrays the culture as a stable, existing and real

systems of practices and beliefs, and as such it is argued that culture as an objective and

independent phenomenon can be accurately observed, investigated and measured. This point

of view which epistemology views culture, leads to a positivistic/analytical research strategy,

making the researcher perceive reality as concrete, tangible, hard, stable and real along with

deterministic relations among its constituent parts (Easterby-Smith 2012). The goal of

positivistic/analytical research is to describe objective reality as something possible since

most of the times an assumption is made that only that there is only one possible answer to a

research question. The proponents of the positivistic approach majors on the methodology

unity of all sciences and disagree with the fundamental differences between social and

natural sciences. An individual’s epistemological position portrays the “view of what we

know about the world and how can we know it”.

Epistemology is firmly integrated in the ontological belief that the subject of human

being’s behaviour is manifest of a rule and order controlled by external reality. Implying that

there is conceptual perspective that human actions and behaviours are by far determined by

stimuli which is not caused by the humans themselves (Roots 2007). Logical positivism has

continued over the years to inform much of the educational research and has significantly

impacted the manner in which knowledge about education is disseminated and gathered.

In America, the American Association for Education Research has indicated an increase

in orientation within initiatives funded by the federal institutions to carry out research

based primarily on collection of scientific evidence...