Skip to main content
Log in

UNDERSTANDING WHY SCHOLARS CHOOSE TO WORK IN ALTERNATIVE INQUIRY PARADIGMS

  • Published:
Research in Higher Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

With the rise of alternative inquiry paradigmsacross academic fields, faculty within the same academicdepartments choose to ground themselves within different intellectual traditions and distinctacademic cultures, not simply those parallel to thepositivist tradition. One illustration of the emergingparadigmatic pluralism across academe is the actual paradigm choice by individual scholars.Appreciating these paradigm choices is critical if weare to interpret the faculty work and faculty culturethat shape institutional culture and influence resource allocation at universities and colleges. Usingqualitative methods, I focus upon a single discipline inmy exploratory study, law, but extend these concepts andissues in analyzing and interpreting my findings to how they might apply to faculty working inother academic fields.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Allen, F. (1983). Legal scholarship: Present status and future prospects. Journal of Legal Education33: 403±405.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, G. (1989). Critical ethnography in education: Origins, current status and new directions. In C. Conrad, et al. (eds.), Qualitative Research in Higher Education: Experiencing Alternative Perspectives and Approaches(pp. 209±266). Needham Heights, MA: Ginn Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Angus, L. (1986). Developments in ethnographic research in education: From interpretive to critical ethnography. Journal of Research and Development in Education20: 59±67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, J. (1990). Models and Interpretations. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z. (1978). Hermeneutics and Social Science: Approaches to Understanding. London: Hutchinson and Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becher, A. (1989). Academic Tribes and Territories: Intellectual Enquiry and Cultures of the Disciplines. Milton-Keynes, Australia: Open University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biglan, A. (1973). The characteristics of subject matter in different academic areas. Journal of Applied Psychology57: 195±203.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brest, P. (1993). Plusce change. Michigan Law Review91: 1945±1952.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campos, P. (1993). That obscure object of desire: Hermeneutics and the autonomous legal text. Minnesota Law Review77: 1065±1095.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caudill, D. (1987). Disclosing tilt: A partial defense of critical legal studies and a comparative introduction to the philosophy of the law-idea. Iowa Law Review72: 287± 358.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chow, D. (1992). A pragmatic model of law. Washington Law Review67: 755±824.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collier, C. (1993). Interdisciplinarity legal scholarship in search of a paradigm. Duke Law Journal42: 840±853.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conrad, C. (1982). Grounded theory: An alternative approach to research in higher education. Review of Higher Education5: 239±249.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook, T., and Campbell, D. (1979). Qualitative Evaluation: Design and Analysis Issues for Field Settings. Chicago: Rand McNally.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crampton, R. (1986). Dymystifying legal scholarship. Georgetown Law Review75: 1± 17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research Design: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among the Five Traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delgado, R. (1993). The inward turn in outsider jurisprudence. William and Mary Law Review34: 741±768.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denzin, N., and Lincoln, Y. (1994). Introduction: Entering the field of qualitative research. In N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research(pp. 1± 17). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dressel, P., and Marcus, D. (1982). Teaching and Learning in College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erlandson, D., Harris, E., Skipper, B., and Allen, S. (1993). Doing Naturalistic Inquiry: A Guide to Methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eskridge, W., and Peller, G. (1991). The new public law movement: Moderation as a postmodern cultural form. Michigan Law Review89: 707±791.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fichl, R. (1987). Some realism about critical legal studies. University of Miami Law Review41: 505±532.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Writings. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glazer, B. (1978). Theoretical Sensitivity: Advances in the Methodology of Grounded Theory. Mill Valley, CA: Sociological Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glazer, B., and Strauss, A. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, J. (1993). A response from the visitor from another planet. Michigan Law Review91: 1953±1969.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, R. (1993). Lawyers, scholars, and the “middle ground.” Michigan Law Review91: 2075±2112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greene, J. (1990). Three views on the nature and role of knowledge in the social sci ences. In E. Guba (ed.), The Paradigm Dialog(pp. 227±245). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guba, E. (ed.) (1990a). The Paradigm Dialog. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guba, E. (1990b). Subjectivity and objectivity. In E. Eisner and A. Peshkin (eds.), Qualitative Inquiry in Education: The Continuing Debate(pp. 28±73). New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guba, E., and Lincoln, Y. (1988). Do inquiry paradigms imply inquiry methodologies? In D. Fetterman (ed.), Qualitative Approaches to Evaluation in Education: The Silent Scientific Revolution(pp. 89±115). New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, J., and Mashburn, A. (1989). Jean-Luc Godard and critical legal studies (Because we need the eggs). Michigan Law Review87: 1924±1944.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hekman, S. (1986). Hermeneutics and the Sociology of Knowledge. Cambridge, England: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hermann, D. (1982). Phenomenology, structuralism, hermeneutics, and legal study: Applications of contemporary continental thought to legal phenomena. University of Miami Law Review36: 379±410.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hesse, M. (1980). Revolutions and Reconstructions in the Philosophy of Science. Brighton, Sussex, England: Harvester Press, Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchinson, A. (ed.) (1989). Critical Legal Studies. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, D. (1985a). The turn to interpretation. Southern California Law Review57: 251±275.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, D. (1985b). Critical theory, structuralism and contemporary legal scholarship. New England Law Review21: 209±289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kincheloe, J., and McLaren, P. (1994). Rethinking critical theory and qualitative research. In N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research(pp. 138±157). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kissam, P. (1986). The decline of law school professionalism. University of Pennsylvania Law Review134: 251±324.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knorr-Cetina, K. (1981). The Manufacture or Knowledge: An essay on the Constructivist and Contextual Nature of Science. New York: Pergamon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kronman, A. (1981). Foreward: Legal scholarship and moral education. Yale Law Journal90: 955±969.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuh, G. (1993). Assessing campus environments. In M. Barr (ed.), Handbook of Student Affairs Administration(pp. 30±48). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, T. (1969). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lather, P. (1986). Research as praxis. Harvard Educational Review56(3): 257±277.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lattuca, L., and Stark, J. (1995). Modifying the major: Disciplinary thought from ten disciplines. Review of Higher Education, 18(3): 315±344.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lincoln, Y. (1992). A short but optimistic history of the great higher education wars of the late twentieth century. Postsecondary Education Network, 8±11.

  • Lincoln, Y. S., and Guba, E. C. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lincoln, Y., and Guba, E. (1994). Competing paradigms in qualitative research. In N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research(pp. 105±117). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, C., and Rossman, G. (1995). Designing Qualitative Research, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menkel-Meadow, C. (1992). Mainstreaming feminist legal theory. Pacific Law Journal23: 1493±1542.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merriam, S. (1998). Case Study Research in Education: A Qualitative Approach, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Minda, G. (1989). The jurisprudential movements of the 1980s. Ohio State Law Review50: 599±662.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mootz, F. (1988). The ontological basis of legal hermeneutics: A proposed model of inquiry based on the work on Gadamer, Habermas, and Ricoeur. Boston University Law Review68: 523±617.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen, J. (1990). Introduction: Feminist research methods. In C. Conrad, et al. Qualitative Research in Higher Education: Experiencing, Alternative, Perspectives and Approaches(pp. 91±130). Needham Heights, MA: Ginn Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. (1993). The use and abuse of philosophy in legal education. Stanford Law Review45: 1627±1645.

    Google Scholar 

  • Papke, D. (1989). Problems with an uninvited guest: Richard A. Posner and the law and literature movement. Boston University Law Review69: 1067±1088.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, D. (1992). The metaphysics of legal formalism. Iowa Law Review, 77: 741± 771.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, D. (1990). Subjectivity and objectivity: An objective inquiry. In E. Eisner and A. Peshkin (eds.), Qualitative Inquiry in Education: The Continuing Debate(pp. 19± 37). New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popkewitz, T. (1990). Whose future? Whose past? Notes on critical theory and methodology. In E. Guba ed.), The Paradigm Dialog(pp. 46±66). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popper, K. (1963). Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, 4th ed. rev. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Porter, E. (1991). The player and the dice: Physics and critical legal theory. Ohio State Law Journal, 52: 1571±1597.

    Google Scholar 

  • Posner, R. (1987). The discipline of law as an autonomous discipline. Harvard Law Review95: 761±780.

    Google Scholar 

  • Post, R. (1992). Legal scholarship and the practice of law. University of Colorado Law Review63: 615±625.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roman, L., and Apple, M. (1990). Is naturalism a move away from positivism: Materialist and feminist approaches to subjectivity in ethnographic research. In E. Eisner and A. Peshkin (eds.), Qualitative Inquiry in Education: The Continuing Debate(pp. 28± 73). New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, E. (1988). The practice and discourse of legal scholarship. Michigan Law Review86: 1835±1905.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, E. (1992). On beyond truth: A theory for evaluating legal scholarship. California Law Review80: 889±977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwandt, T. (1994). Constructivist, interpretivist approaches to human inquiry. In N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research(pp. 118±137). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steier, F. (Ed.) (1991). Research and Reflexivity. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strauss, A. (1987). Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strauss, A., and Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teachout, P. (1981). Boundaries of realism. Virginia Law Review67: 815±861.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thagard, P. (1992). Conceptual Revolutions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toma. J. D. (1997a). Exploring a typology for classifying inquirers and inquiry into paradigms. Review of Higher Education21(1): 19±41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toma, J. D. (1997b). Alternative inquiry paradigms, faculty cultures, and the definition of academic life. Journal of Higher Education68(6): 679±705.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trubek, D., and Esser, J. (1989). “Critical empiricism” in American legal studies: Paradox, program, or Pandora' s box. Law and Social Inquiry14: 3±52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turley, J. (1987). The hitchhiker' s guide to CLS, Unger, and deep thought. Northwestern University Law Review81: 593±83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Unger, R. (1986). The Critical Legal Studies Movement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wachterhauser, B. (1986). Hermeneutics and Modern Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiland, S. (1995). “Belonging to romanticism”: Discipline, specialty, and academic identity. Review of Higher Education18(3): 265±292.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinrib, E. (1988). Legal formalism: On the immanent rationality of law. Yale Law Journal97: 950±1016.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, G. (1983). Closing the cycle. Journal of Legal Education33: 449±458.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, G. (1986). From realism to critical legal studies: A truncated intellectual history. Southwestern Law Journal40: 819±843.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, J. B. (1993). Law teachers' writing. Michigan Law Review91: 1970±1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. (1987). Critical legal studies: The death of transcendence and the rise of the new Langdells. New York University Law Review62: 429±496.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Toma, J.D. UNDERSTANDING WHY SCHOLARS CHOOSE TO WORK IN ALTERNATIVE INQUIRY PARADIGMS. Research in Higher Education 40, 539–569 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018748427823

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018748427823

Keywords

Navigation