Differences between Positivism and Interpretivism The key features of positivism and social constructionism philosophical approaches are presented in the following table by Ramanathan (2008) [4].

=========================================================================== Interpretivism and positivism are two popular research paradigms. To understand both, it is best to start with understanding what research paradigm means. What is Research Paradigm and How it is Represented? A research paradigm is defined as a “set of common beliefs and agreements” shared by researchers regarding “how problems should be understood and addressed” (Kuhn, 1962). Therefore, this is a specific way of perceiving the world (a worldview) that shape how we seek answers to research questions.

As Guba (1990) argued, a research paradigm is mainly characterised by its ontological, epistemological and methodological dispositions. What is Ontology and What is Epistemology? Before I begin to explain, let me assure you that these are two of the complex (philosophical) terms/ideas that not just me but many other researchers I know have struggled to grasp during early days of their academic lives. Understanding the two concepts makes it much easier to understand the nature of different research paradigms and their methodological applications. Remember, understanding is the key here, not remembering the definitions. As a PhD student (7 years ago), I tried to understand by reading everything I could find but it only gave me a theoretical level understanding.

However, once I began to apply the constructs to everyday life and all sorts of academic/non-academic problems that we come across in mundane life, it helped me to become more comfortable with the two terms and their research implications. I still use this in qualitative research sessions to aid student understanding. Nevertheless, let us begin with definitions. Ontology is the nature of reality (Hudson and Ozanne, 1988) and the epistemology is the relationship between the researcher and the reality or how this reality is captured or known (Carson et al., 2001). Following is my understanding and interpretation of the two terms. Ontology is concerned with identifying the overall nature of existence of a particular phenomenon. When we seek answers (reality) to our research questions, we are referring to a particular type of knowledge that exist external to the researcher.

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It is just the way things are. On the contrary, epistemology is about how we go about uncovering this knowledge (that is external to researcher) and learn about reality. So it is concerned with questions such as how do we know what is true and how do we distinguish true from falls?

Therefore, epistemology is internal to the researcher. It is how they see the world around them. For example, if you were asked whether it will rain tomorrow, there are two obvious responses to this question (YES or NO). Can they be any other responses here?