Confluencing Critical Paradigm with Qualitative Inquiry:
An Approach to Undergird the Value of Social Research
in Transforming Inequalities in the Realm of the Nursing Profession
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Dennis B. Gogola, RN, MAN
In the realm of science, authority is given to the empirical-analytic paradigm. In research, knowledge produced within this paradigm is regarded as the real science, and randomized controlled trials (RCT’s) are considered the gold standard” (Munhall, 2012, p. 95). Its focus is on the cause and effect relationship in which the variables are manipulated and controlled; hence, the analyses of findings would only deal with the objective data. However, this quantitative approach cannot be dissociated in the field of knowledge generation as it has a unique purpose in a particular type of investigation in which this ultimately requires objectivity and measurement as tools. For instance, there is the exploration of new drugs that necessitates RCT’s to discover the interaction with a human body and looking at the potential therapeutic effects on the physiological phenomena of an individual. On the other hand, some physiological conditions of a person may be linked to its interaction to the external dimension of laboratory (society) with diverse influences in which Munhall (2012) expressed that the positivistic framework cannot embrace the perspectives of the real world (p. 95). Hence, social inquiry is essential to facilitate a more in-depth approach to exploring, understanding, and describing the social context (e.g., injustices confronted by the nursing profession in the Philippines).
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