CARACTERÍSTICAS

Creswell (2014, p. 6) defines theoretical frameworks as ‘a general philosophical orientation about the world and the nature of research that a researcher brings to a study.’ This sub- section explains this philosophical orientation of the researcher in the form of the following four key theoretical assumptions as identified by Burrell and Morgan (1979, p. 1-3): (1) ontology, (2) epistemology, (3) human nature, and (4) research methodology.

3.1.1 Ontological assumptions

According to Burrell and Morgan (1979, p. 1), ‘ontology concerns the nature of the world that is investigated,’ which in the context of this research is the social world, and based on the researchers’ ontological beliefs, what can be studied and known about reality will greatly vary (Hudson & Ozanne, 1988; Guba & Lincoln, 1994; Crotty, 1998). Extant literature on ontology identifies two dominant and opposing ideas that propose that either reality only exists inside the cognition of the observer (nominalism) or that it exists independent of the observer (realism) (Cohen et al., 2009, p. 8). In other words, nominalism proposes that the social world is a mental model of the observer and does not have a reality of its own, while realism believes that social structures have an independent existence (Burrell and Morgan, 1979, p. 3-4). Aligning with the ontological position of nominalism, the researcher believes that reality is subjective, and it is constructed by human beings within specific historical and socio-cultural contexts. Therefore, social science research must be situated within its unique contexts and not generalized for the whole population (Creswell, 2007). Furthermore, the researcher also believes that a single phenomenon or social construct may have multiple

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interpretations and meanings for different individuals rather than being a universal truth that can be determined by a process of measurement. Building on this ontological stance, the next sub-section explains the strong correlation between this ontological view and the re- searcher’s epistemological assumptions (Guba and Lincoln, 1994, p. 108).

3.1.2 Epistemological assumptions

Epistemology is concerned with the nature and forms of knowledge: what constitutes ‘true’ knowledge about the world; in what form does it exist; how it can be acquired; and how it is communicated to other human beings, i.e., can knowledge be externalized and communi- cated as facts, or is it something that we personally experience? (Burrell and Morgan, 1979; Cohen et al., 2009). Epistemological assumptions broadly fall on a spectrum ranging from positivism to interpretivism (Onwuegbuzie and Leech, 2005). Positivists believe knowledge is objective, tangible, and absolute, and it can be understood and learned using empirical and quantitative methods commonly used in natural sciences (Crotty, 1998, p. 5-6). In contrast, interpretivists believe knowledge is subjective, situated, and socially constructed, and hence it cannot be gained by being an external observer of social activities (Hammersley, 2013, p. 26). Therefore, interpretivists often personally involve in the social world and seek to gain knowledge from ‘the inside rather than the outside’ (Burrell and Morgan, 1979, p. 5).

Given the researcher’s ontological position of nominalism, his epistemology better aligns with the interpretivist assumptions on the epistemological spectrum. To elaborate, the re- searcher believes that social constructs (e.g., quality of ECE environment, school culture, motivations of teachers, and the concept of leadership) that this research aims to understand are socially constructed by individuals (in this case the teachers and school leaders at the case study school). Therefore, to understand these social constructs, the researcher not only needs to observe the actions and behaviors of these individuals, but also interact with them to understand the beliefs, values, and contexts that drive these actions and behaviors.

38 3.1.3 Assumptions about human nature

Burrell and Morgan (1979, p. 2) define human nature as ‘the relationship between people and their environment’ in terms of whether people or their environment determine what hap- pens to people. On one extreme lies ‘determinism’ which is the belief that the environment or people’s situation controls what happens to them. On the other extreme lies ‘voluntarism’ which assumes that people are free-willed actors who are in total control of their destiny. Unlike, ontology and epistemology, Burrell and Morgan (1979, p. 6) do not feel strongly that researchers need to make a choice about their assumptions about human nature. Rather, they note that many social science researchers assume an intermediate position, which is the stance that the researcher has chosen for this study. To elaborate, the researcher believes that the individuals being studied (i.e., the teachers and the school leaders at the case study school) are free-willed actors but are also constrained by their situation and the environment in which they find themselves. For instance, while the school leaders are free to decide the salaries of teachers, the financial constraints of a low-fee private school limit the extent to which the school leaders can increase these salaries even if they wanted to.

3.1.4 Methodological choices

Hitchcock and Hughes (1995, p. 21) assert that ‘ontological assumptions engender episte- mological assumptions, both of which then give rise to methodological considerations, which in turn lead to issues of instrumentation and data collection.’ Based on this logical link between the four assumptions discussed earlier, the researcher’s theoretical framework leads to a qualitative methodology that is best explored by a case study as it is impossible to separate the variables of the phenomenon (e.g., the motivations of teachers, engagement of school leaders in the teaching and learning processes, and school culture) from their context (Yin, 2009). Furthermore, since the research study aims to explain and describe human be- havior with an emphasis on the differences and similarities of human beings, and the re- searcher has chosen to utilize multiple qualitative approaches such as observations, in-depth interviews, and review of relevant documents to build a rich pool of data which will help triangulate the findings and build a robust understanding of the various factors which seem to be influencing the quality of the ECE environment in the case study school.

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