How does the lens from which you view the world shape your approach to research inquiry? Why is it important as a scholar-practitioner engaged in research to acknowledge your worldview?

The Learning Resources in this first week will help you answer these questions, and they will provide you with a foundation in the philosophy of science that will help you appreciate various research designs and methods. With this foundation, you will be encouraged to reflect on how your assumptions about the acquisition of truth and the nature of the world influence your approach to the research process.

For this Discussion, you will identify an area of interest for a possible research topic. As you read about the different philosophical orientations in this week’s readings, consider if one of these orientations most closely aligns with your worldview and a particular approach to research.

Post a brief description of your topic of research interest. Next, state the philosophical orientation that reflects your worldview and explain the epistemological and ontological assumptions of this orientation. Then, explain how these assumptions lend themselves to one or more research approaches.

Be sure to support your Main Issue Post and Response Post with reference to the week’s Learning Resources and other scholarly evidence in APA Style.

LEARNING RESIURCES/REFERENCES

• Babbie, E. (2017). Basics of social research (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
  • Chapter 1, “Human Inquiry and Science”
• Burkholder, G. J., Cox, K. A., Crawford, L. M., & Hitchcock, J. H.  (Eds.). (2020). Research designs and methods: An applied guide for the scholar-practitioner. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Chapter 1, "Introduction to Research"
  • Chapter 2, “Philosophical Foundations and the Role of Theory in Research”