Objectivism Worldview Is Aligned To The Constructivist Model

Based on the nature and purpose of this research project the paradigm that complements is constructivist. Patton states that research should be judged " ... by its intended purposes, available resources, procedures followed and results obtained, all within a particular context and for a specific audience" (Patton, 2015, p.92). With the criteria in mind the following essay will explain why the researcher believes her dissertation on data driven decision making (D3M) worldview is aligned to the constructivist model.

Firstly, the purpose of this research is to change human culture, a person cannot intend to change human nature by only being an outside observer. The researcher has to immerse themselves into the community that he or she is studying.

Again, if we agree that human construction is flawed then we cannot believe that data collected and the knowledge that will come from that data will be "objective". Crotty defines objectivism in his work, "Objectivist epistemology holds that meaning, and therefore meaningful reality, exists as such apart from the operation of any consciousness" (Crotty, 1998, p.8) Consciousness plays a large role in the collection and analyzing of qualitative data. For example, if the researcher keeps a detailed field journal with dates, time and events, the researcher must accept the fact that he or she is making conscious decisions of what to write down. The researcher does not document every single event that occurs just the ones she feels have baring on the research. She then has to write her perspective of events. You may have 20 different people in the room who all experienced the same event 20 different ways. The knowledge gained from the event the researcher wrote about can only be gained by taking into account the perspective of everyone who experienced that one moment in time. This leads the researcher to once again align her project to the constructivist model. " There is no objective truth waiting for us to discover it. Truth, or meaning, comes into existence on and out of our engagement with the realities in our world" (Crotty, 1998, p.8). Crotty explains that knowledge is not discovered but constructed with many forces influencing what information is gained (Crotty,