Institutional and Historical Commons^™

Facilitating Student Engagement Research: A Historical Analogy For Understanding And Applying Naturalistic Inquiry, Lane G. Perry Iii, April Perry

Journal of Research Initiatives

This paper offers a historical theoretical discussion and practical perspective on the qualitative paradigm of inquiry referred to as Naturalistic Inquiry (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Moreover, it endeavors to demonstrate the paradigm’s versatility and usefulness when attempting to illuminate phenomena that specifically occur when students experience and interact with engaging, innovative, and experientially based pedagogies (e.g., service-learning, work-integrated learning, community-based learning). This paper presents and paradigmatically supports the researchers’ worldview through a logical primacy and discussion of ontological, epistemological, axiological, and methodological perspectives (Guba & Lincoln, 2001). Following this, Naturalistic Inquiry is identified as a paradigm of inquiry that aligns …