THE QUALlTATIVE INVESTIGATION IN EDUCATION: CRITIC AND PROSPECTIVE

The social science along with the arrival of the pospositivism became independent from the natural science research approach and mainly adopted the naturalistic-interpretative paradigm. In some cases, in the educational research process, some radical authors have considered the qualitative approach as the only valid option to conduct research in this field. The purpose of this paper consists of presenting a critic to that paradigm according to three main questions: (a) To what extend the qualitative approach is enough to get all possible knowledge of the educational process as a study object?; (b) How can be justified a unique paradigm to study a social phenomena, since they are considered as complex reality; and (c) What has been the contribution of the qualitative research in formulating new policies in education and improving the quality of the teaching-Iearning process? Proper literature was reviewed which included both the onto-epistemological and methodological theories of the naturalistic-interpretative paradigm and the traditional research approach in the education field. It is concluded that, if the focus of the educational research assumes to be ontologically multi-realistic, complex by nature, and socio-culturally involved in the changing process, then, the recommended research approach should be a multi-method and participative model. However, it is recognized that in some cases, individual research approach having a partial vision of the educational reality, such as qualitative, quantitative or socio-critical, can be justified.