The constructivist paradigm is also called the interpretive, symbolic or hermeneutic paradigm (Dison, 1998, p.170). Its proponents believe that knowledge is a human construction, a mental representation and that there are multiple constructions of any situation. Thus to Guba (1990, p.27), constructivism, "intends neither to neither predict nor control the 'real' world, nor to transform it but to reconstruct the 'world' at the only point at which it exists: in the mind of constructors. It emphasises the importance of the insiders' viewpoints in understanding social reality.
“Constructivism is the view that all knowledge, and therefore all meaningful reality, is contingent on human practices being constructed in and out of interaction between human beings and their world, and developed and transmitted within an essentially social context (Golafshani,2003, p.603).The basic assumptions guiding the constructivist paradigm are that knowledge is socially constructed by people active in the research process, and that researchers should attempt to understand the world of lived experience from the point of view of those who live in it (Mertens
(2007). In this study the researcher focused on the knowledge constructed by the trainee teachers as pertaining to handling gifted learners as a result of their training and teaching practice experience.
The constructivist paradigm has embedded in it ontological, epistemological and methodological characteristics, as illustrated below.
Table 3.2: The constructivist paradigm
Feature Description
Purpose of
research
Understand and interpret students’ and teachers’ perspectives on the factors that could impact on instructional approaches
Ontology There are multiple realities
Reality can be explored, and constructed through human interactions, and meaningful actions
Discover how people make sense of their social worlds in the natural setting by means of daily
routines, conversations and writings while
interacting with others around them
Many social realities exist due to varying human experience, including people’s knowledge, views, interpretations and experiences
Epistemology Events are understood through the mental processes of interpretation that is influenced by interaction with social context
Those active in the research process socially construct knowledge by experiencing the real life or natural settings
Inquirer and the inquired-into are interlocked in an interactive process of talking and listening, reading and writing
More personal, interactive mode of data collection Methodology Processes of data collected by text messages,
interviews, and reflective sessions
Research is a product of the values of the researcher
(Adapted from Cantrell 2001)
Informed by the above assertions, this study was approached from the point of view of the participants’ social context. Acknowledging the fact that reality is socially and mutually constructed, the required data were gathered in an
understanding that it was possible to have a diversity of the interpretations of social reality. Thus, each participant’s perceptions were taken as important and valid. Most importantly each participant was regarded as a knower and whose knowledge was only to be shared by way of exploring his or her experiences, actions, viewpoints and meanings (Mahlo, 2011).
Constructivism stresses the need for the researcher’s sensitivity to the insiders’ viewpoints and the whole social context in which meanings are produced (Denzin, 1989, p. 5). Accordingly, in this study, an attempt to understand the dynamics of preparing pre-service primary school teachers to handle gifted learners in the Zimbabwean context, it was considered crucial to do so from the participants’ points of view. Actually, constructivists believe that reality, truth and knowledge are not only constructed from observable phenomena but by also the descriptions of people’s beliefs, values and reasons, intentions, self-understanding and meaning making ( Henning, Van Rensburg &Smit, 2004,p. 20). Essentially, the researcher wanted to find out how the participants in each research setting constructed reality about the handling of gifted learners. In other words, what their perceptions, truths, explanations, world views and beliefs were and the consequences of their constructions to those with whom they interacted.
Guba and Lincoln (1989, p. 44-45) give the following as the primary assumptions of constructivism for research:
“Truth is a matter of consensus among informed and sophisticated constructors, not of correspondence with objective reality
Facts have no meaning except within some value frameworks, hence they cannot be an objective assessment of any proposition
Causes and effects do not exist except by imputation
Phenomena can only be understood within the context in which they are studied, findings from one context cannot be generalised to another, neither problems nor solutions can be generalised from one setting to another
Data derived from constructivist inquiry have neither special status nor legitimation; they represent simply another construction to be taken into account in the move toward consensus.”
The use of the above constructivist principles helped the researcher to investigate the constructions and meanings profiled by sampled college lecturers, mentors and trainee teachers about their views on the handling of gifted learners in Zimbabwe. In addition to that, the researcher visited selected schools so as to be immersed into the real social context and observe the actions of trainee teachers in order to explore their behaviour, perceptions and experiences.
Although the constructivist paradigm was helpful in shaping the scope and direction of this study it also has some shortcomings. Carr & Kemmis (1986, p. 181) have criticised it for failing to account for the external conditions which may constrain the participants’ understandings of social reality. Again the selected participants may only have partial knowledge of the aspects of social reality being researched on and hence, false results can be arrived at. Surely there may be an objective perspective which may be different from that of the selected individual participants (Cohen& Manion 2014, p. 34-35).
In spite of the above cited limitations of constructivism, its underlying assumptions were found to be quite useful in grappling with the set research questions. Most importantly it greatly influenced the researcher on deciding which research approach to use. The next section discusses the research approach used in this study.