What is Critical research paradigm?
Critical research paradigm is one of the emerging research paradigms in educational research which aims to promote democracy by making changes in different social, political, cultural, economical, ethical as well as other society oriented believes and systems. Here democracy means the people’s ability to speak without any fear from others or to have a kind of sense of freedom from the various restrictions in the society as well as the social, political, economical, cultural, religious, gender, cast barriers. It has its origins in critical theory, attributed to the philosopher as well as theorists like George Hegel in eighteenth century and Karl Marx in nineteenth century. Likewise, in critical pedagogy a key figure Paulo Freire in twenties century. According to the view point of Hammersley, n.d.; Mackenzie & Knipe, 2006, these prominent figures give more attention on eliminating injustices in society and the critical researchers today also aims to transform society to address inequalities, particularly in relation to ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability and other parts of society that are marginalize. So from this we can clearly detect that critical research aims to support political agendas for bringing changes by challenging the interpretation as well as values exist in the society. Similarly, according to Comstock 1982 as cited by Sujan Kim “critical research seeks to explain social inequalities through which individuals can take actions to change in justices”. It promotes the notion of social justice in order to create the world that is fair, more impartial as well as harmonious. Likewise, according to the viewpoint of Kincheloe and McLaren (2002), critical theory is concerned with the power and justice of several issues in society such as economy, race, gender and education. Their view entails the power of social politics and ideologies which influence the educational research. This paradigm relates to the “political agenda and that the task of the researchers is not to be dispassionate, disinterested, and objective” (Morisson 1995 as cited in Cohen, Manion & Morrison 2001, p. 28). From these view points what I have understood about critical research paradigm is, it is a part of educational research which basically deals with the oppression and inequalities in a society that attempts to emancipate an individuals as well as the certain ethnic group to gain power and have freedom from the different social, political, economical ethnic and other barriers exist in the society.
What is critical in Critical Research Paradigm?
As I read some articles to answer the first question given by our tutor; what is critical research I come up with the second answer as well, what makes critical in critical research? In the critical research paradigm there are some aspects which make it critical. As I understood one aspect is to make individuals counter or challenge the false believes exist in the society and direct them in the new trains. Another is to make an argument critically and make a critical judgment towards those believes. Moreover it also tries to capture the unheard voices within the society. In addition it attempts to question against the previous ideologies and construct the new one.
