chapter 7 in research

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Doing Research in the Real World

Student resources, chapter 7: research design: qualitative methods.

• Practising ethical qualitative research
• Types of Qualitative Data
• Increasing validity in qualitative research

Chapter 7: Nonexperimental Research

Chapter 7: introduction.

What do the following classic studies have in common?

• Stanley Milgram found that about two thirds of his research participants were willing to administer dangerous shocks to another person just because they were told to by an authority figure (Milgram, 1963) [1] .
• Elizabeth Loftus and Jacqueline Pickrell showed that it is relatively easy to “implant” false memories in people by repeatedly asking them about childhood events that did not actually happen to them (Loftus & Pickrell, 1995) [2] .
• John Cacioppo and Richard Petty evaluated the validity of their Need for Cognition Scale—a measure of the extent to which people like and value thinking—by comparing the scores of university  professors with those of factory workers (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) [3] .
• David Rosenhan found that confederates who went to psychiatric hospitals claiming to have heard voices saying things like “empty” and “thud” were labeled as schizophrenic by the hospital staff and kept there even though they behaved normally in all other ways (Rosenhan, 1973) [4] .

The answer for purposes of this chapter is that they are not experiments. In this chapter we look more closely at nonexperimental research. We begin with a general definition of nonexperimental research, along with a discussion of when and why nonexperimental research is more appropriate than experimental research. We then look separately at three important types of nonexperimental research: correlational research, quasi-experimental research, and qualitative research.

• Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioural study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67 , 371–378. ↵
• Loftus, E. F., & Pickrell, J. E. (1995). The formation of false memories. Psychiatric Annals, 25 , 720–725. ↵
• Cacioppo, J. T., & Petty, R. E. (1982). The need for cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42 , 116–131. ↵
• Rosenhan, D. L. (1973). On being sane in insane places. Science, 179 , 250–258. ↵
• Research Methods in Psychology. Authored by : Paul C. Price, Rajiv S. Jhangiani, and I-Chant A. Chiang. Provided by : BCCampus. Located at : https://opentextbc.ca/researchmethods/ . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

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Academic research and writing

A concise introduction

Chapter 7 – Primer

The structural elements to be applied in academic writing depend on the nature of the research project. Manifestations of academic writing range from student assignments and term papers to doctoral theses and other forms of complex research documentations. Some structural elements are always used in research papers. Other structural elements are optionally or selectively used. Technically, research papers can be divided into four sections: addments, directories, main body and annex. Each of these sections contains different structural elements that have to be applied in accordance with the formal instructions laid out in academic style guides. Although the applicable rules may vary according to the field of research, some commonalities for structural elements exist. These commonalities may be based on logical considerations or result from traditional academic conventions. Important elements to be discussed in this chapter are cover page, abstract, outline, directories, main body, bibliography and list of references, glossary and appendix, declaration of originality as well as data carrier and electronic storage media.

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Part 2: Conceptualizing your research project

7. Theory and paradigm

Chapter outline.

• What are your assumptions? (16 minute read)
• Ethical and critical considerations (15 minute read)
• Social work research paradigms (25 minute read, plus 10 minute video)
• Developing your theoretical framework (15 minute read)
• Designing your project using theory and paradigm (13 minute read)

Content warning: examples in this chapter contain references to post-traumatic stress disorder and similar culture-bound syndromes related to trauma, colonization and Global North/West hegemony, racist beliefs about intelligence and racist science, sexism in medical science and STEM fields, dropping out of high school, poverty, addiction and the disease model, police violence and systemic racism, rape culture, depression, homelessness, “coming out” as a lesbian, ethnocentrism, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and oppression of TANF recipients.

7.1. What are your assumptions?

Learning objectives.

Learners will be able to…

• Ground your research project and working question in the philosophical assumptions of social science
• Define the terms ‘ ontology ‘ and ‘ epistemology ‘ and explain how they relate to quantitative and qualitative research methods

Last chapter, we reviewed the ethical commitment that social work researchers have to protect the people and communities impacted by their research. Answering the practical questions of harm, conflicts of interest, and other ethical issues will provide clear foundation of what you can and cannot do as part of your research project. In this chapter, we will transition from the real world to the conceptual world. Together, we will discover and explore the theoretical and philosophical foundations of your project. You should complete this chapter with a better sense of how theoretical and philosophical concepts help you answer your working question, and in turn, how theory and philosophy will affect the research project you design.

Embrace philosophy

The single biggest barrier to engaging with philosophy of science, at least according to some of my students, is the word philosophy. I had one student who told me that as soon as that word came up, she tuned out because she thought it was above her head. As we discussed in Chapter 1 , some students already feel like research methods is too complex of a topic, and asking them to engage with philosophical concepts within research is like asking asking them to tap dance while wearing ice skates.

For those students, I would first answer that this chapter is my favorite one to write because it was the most personally impactful for me to learn during my MSW program. Finding my theoretical and philosophical home was important for me to develop as a clinician and a researcher. Following our advice in Chapter 2 , you’ve hopefully chosen a topic that is important to your interests as a social work practitioner, and consider this chapter an opportunity to find your personal roots in addition to revising your working question and designing your research study.

Exploring theoretical and philosophical questions will cause your working question and research project to become clearer…eventually. Consider this chapter as something similar to getting a nice outfit for a fancy occasion. You have to try on a lot of different theories and philosophies before you find the one that fits with what you’re going for. There’s no right way to try on clothes, and there’s no one right theory or philosophy for your project. You might find a good fit with the first one you’ve tried on, or it might take a few different outfits. You have to find ideas that make sense together because they fit with how you think about your topic and how you should study it.

As you read this section, try to think about which assumptions  feel right for your working question and research project. Which assumptions match what you think and believe about your topic? The goal is not to find the “right” answer, but to develop your conceptual understanding of your research topic by finding the right theoretical and philosophical fit.

Theoretical & philosophical fluency

In addition to self-discovery, theoretical and philosophical fluency is a skill that social workers must possess in order to engage in social justice work. That’s because theory and philosophy help sharpen your perceptions of the social world. Just as social workers use empirical data to support their work, they also use theoretical and philosophical foundations. More importantly, theory and philosophy help social workers build heuristics that can help identify the fundamental assumptions at the heart of social conflict and social problems. They alert you to the patterns in the underlying assumptions that different people make and how those assumptions shape their worldview, what they view as true, and what they hope to accomplish. In the next section, we will review feminist and other critical perspectives on research, and they should help inform you of how assumptions about research can reinforce existing oppression.

Understanding these deeper structures is a true gift of social work research. Because we acknowledge the usefulness and truth value of multiple philosophies and worldviews contained in this chapter, we can arrive at a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the social world. Methods can be closely associated with particular worldviews or ideologies. There are necessarily philosophical and theoretical aspects to this, and this can be intimidating at times, but it’s important to critically engage with these questions to improve the quality of research.

Building your ice float

Although it may not seem like it right now, your project will develop a from a strong connection to previous theoretical and philosophical ideas about your topic. It’s likely you already have some (perhaps unstated) philosophical or theoretical ideas that undergird your thinking on the topic. Moreover, the philosophical questions we review here should inform how you understand different theories and practice modalities in social work, as they deal with the bedrock questions about science and human knowledge.

Before we can dive into philosophy, we need to recall out conversation from Chapter 1 about objective truth and subjective truths. Let’s test your knowledge with a quick example. Is crime on the rise in the United States? A recent Five Thirty Eight article highlights the disparity between historical trends on crime that are at or near their lowest in the thirty years with broad perceptions by the public that crime is on the rise (Koerth & Thomson-DeVeaux, 2020). [1] Social workers skilled at research can marshal objective facts, much like the authors do, to demonstrate that people’s perceptions are not based on a rational interpretation of the world. Of course, that is not where our work ends. Subjective facts might seek to decenter this narrative of ever-increasing crime, deconstruct is racist and oppressive origins, or simply document how that narrative shapes how individuals and communities conceptualize their world.

Objective does not mean right, and subjective does not mean wrong. Researchers must understand what kind of truth they are searching for so they can choose a theoretical framework, methodology, and research question that matches. As we discussed in Chapter 1 , researchers seeking objective truth (one of the philosophical foundations at the bottom of Figure 7.1) often employ quantitative methods (one of the methods at the top of Figure 7.1). Similarly, researchers seeking subjective truths (again, at the bottom of Figure 7.1) often employ qualitative methods (at the top of Figure 7.1). This chapter is about the connective tissue, and by the time you are done reading, you should have a first draft of a theoretical and philosophical (a.k.a. paradigmatic) framework for your study.

Ontology: Assumptions about what is real & true

In section 1.2, we reviewed the two types of truth that social work researchers seek— objective truth and subjective truths —and linked these with the methods—quantitative and qualitative—that researchers use to study the world. If those ideas aren’t fresh in your mind, you may want to navigate back to that section for an introduction.

These two types of truth rely on different assumptions about what is real in the social world—i.e., they have a different ontology . Ontology refers to the study of being (literally, it means “rational discourse about being”). In philosophy, basic questions about existence are typically posed as ontological, e.g.:

• What is there?
• What types of things are there?
• How can we describe existence?
• What kind of categories can things go into?
• Are the categories of existence hierarchical?

Objective vs. subjective ontologies

At first, it may seem silly to question whether the phenomena we encounter in the social world are real. Of course you exist, your thoughts exist, your computer exists, and your friends exist. You can see them with your eyes. This is the ontological framework of  realism , which simply means that the concepts we talk about in science exist independent of observation (Burrell & Morgan, 1979). [2] Obviously, when we close our eyes, the universe does not disappear. You may be familiar with the philosophical conundrum: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

The natural sciences, like physics and biology, also generally rely on the assumption of realism. Lone trees falling make a sound. We assume that gravity and the rest of physics are there, even when no one is there to observe them. Mitochondria are easy to spot with a powerful microscope, and we can observe and theorize about their function in a cell. The gravitational force is invisible, but clearly apparent from observable facts, such as watching an apple fall from a tree. Of course, out theories about gravity have changed over the years. Improvements were made when observations could not be correctly explained using existing theories and new theories emerged that provided a better explanation of the data.

As we discussed in section 1.2, culture-bound syndromes are an excellent example of where you might come to question realism. Of course, from a Western perspective as researchers in the United States, we think that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) classification of mental health disorders is real and that these culture-bound syndromes are aberrations from the norm. But what about if you were a person from Korea experiencing Hwabyeong? Wouldn’t you consider the Western diagnosis of somatization disorder to be incorrect or incomplete? This conflict raises the question–do either Hwabyeong   or DSM diagnoses like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) really exist at all…or are they just social constructs that only exist in our minds?

If your answer is “no, they do not exist,” you are adopting the ontology of anti-realism ( or relativism ), or the idea that social concepts do not exist outside of human thought. Unlike the realists who seek a single, universal truth, the anti-realists perceive a sea of truths, created and shared within a social and cultural context. Unlike objective truth, which is true for all, subjective truths will vary based on who you are observing and the context in which you are observing them. The beliefs, opinions, and preferences of people are actually truths that social scientists measure and describe. Additionally, subjective truths do not exist independent of human observation because they are the product of the human mind. We negotiate what is true in the social world through language, arriving at a consensus and engaging in debate within our socio-cultural context.

These theoretical assumptions should sound familiar if you’ve studied social constructivism or symbolic interactionism in your other MSW courses, most likely in human behavior in the social environment (HBSE). [3] From an anti-realist perspective, what distinguishes the social sciences from natural sciences is human thought. When we try to conceptualize trauma from an anti-realist perspective, we must pay attention to the feelings, opinions, and stories in people’s minds. In their most radical formulations, anti-realists propose that these feelings and stories are all that truly exist.

What happens when a situation is incorrectly interpreted? Certainly, who is correct about what is a bit subjective. It depends on who you ask. Even if you can determine whether a person is actually incorrect, they think they are right. Thus, what may not be objectively true for everyone is nevertheless true to the individual interpreting the situation. Furthermore, they act on the assumption that they are right. We all do. Much of our behaviors and interactions are a manifestation of our personal subjective truth. In this sense, even incorrect interpretations are truths, even though they are true only to one person or a group of misinformed people. This leads us to question whether the social concepts we think about really exist. For researchers using subjective ontologies, they might only exist in our minds; whereas, researchers who use objective ontologies which assume these concepts exist independent of thought.

How do we resolve this dichotomy? As social workers, we know that often times what appears to be an either/or situation is actually a both/and situation. Let’s take the example of trauma. There is clearly an objective thing called trauma. We can draw out objective facts about trauma and how it interacts with other concepts in the social world such as family relationships and mental health. However, that understanding is always bound within a specific cultural and historical context. Moreover, each person’s individual experience and conceptualization of trauma is also true. Much like a client who tells you their truth through their stories and reflections, when a participant in a research study tells you what their trauma means to them, it is real even though only they experience and know it that way. By using both objective and subjective analytic lenses, we can explore different aspects of trauma—what it means to everyone, always, everywhere, and what is means to one person or group of people, in a specific place and time.

Epistemology: Assumptions about how we know things

Having discussed what is true, we can proceed to the next natural question—how can we come to know what is real and true? This is epistemology . Epistemology is derived from the Ancient Greek epistēmē which refers to systematic or reliable knowledge (as opposed to doxa, or “belief”). Basically, it means “rational discourse about knowledge,” and the focus is the study of knowledge and methods used to generate knowledge. Epistemology has a history as long as philosophy, and lies at the foundation of both scientific and philosophical knowledge.

Epistemological questions include:

• What is knowledge?
• How can we claim to know anything at all?
• What does it mean to know something?
• What makes a belief justified?
• What is the relationship between the knower and what can be known?

While these philosophical questions can seem far removed from real-world interaction, thinking about these kinds of questions in the context of research helps you target your inquiry by informing your methods and helping you revise your working question. Epistemology is closely connected to method as they are both concerned with how to create and validate knowledge. Research methods are essentially epistemologies – by following a certain process we support our claim to know about the things we have been researching. Inappropriate or poorly followed methods can undermine claims to have produced new knowledge or discovered a new truth. This can have implications for future studies that build on the data and/or conceptual framework used.

Research methods can be thought of as essentially stripped down, purpose-specific epistemologies. The knowledge claims that underlie the results of surveys, focus groups, and other common research designs ultimately rest on epistemological assumptions of their methods. Focus groups and other qualitative methods usually rely on subjective epistemological (and ontological) assumptions. Surveys and and other quantitative methods usually rely on objective epistemological assumptions. These epistemological assumptions often entail congruent subjective or objective ontological assumptions about the ultimate questions about reality.

Objective vs. subjective epistemologies

One key consideration here is the status of ‘truth’ within a particular epistemology or research method. If, for instance, some approaches emphasize subjective knowledge and deny the possibility of an objective truth, what does this mean for choosing a research method?

We began to answer this question in Chapter 1 when we described the scientific method and objective and subjective truths. Epistemological subjectivism focuses on what people think and feel about a situation, while epistemological objectivism focuses on objective facts irrelevant to our interpretation of a situation (Lin, 2015). [4]

While there are many important questions about epistemology to ask (e.g., “How can I be sure of what I know?” or “What can I not know?” see Willis, 2007 [5] for more), from a pragmatic perspective most relevant epistemological question in the social sciences is whether truth is better accessed using numerical data or words and performances. Generally, scientists approaching research with an objective epistemology (and realist ontology) will use quantitative methods to arrive at scientific truth. Quantitative methods examine numerical data to precisely describe and predict elements of the social world. For example, while people can have different definitions for poverty, an objective measurement such as an annual income of “less than $25,100 for a family of four” provides a precise measurement that can be compared to incomes from all other people in any society from any time period, and refers to real quantities of money that exist in the world. Mathematical relationships are uniquely useful in that they allow comparisons across individuals as well as time and space. In this book, we will review the most common designs used in quantitative research: surveys and experiments. These types of studies usually rely on the epistemological assumption that mathematics can represent the phenomena and relationships we observe in the social world.

Although mathematical relationships are useful, they are limited in what they can tell you. While you can learn use quantitative methods to measure individuals’ experiences and thought processes, you will miss the story behind the numbers. To analyze stories scientifically, we need to examine their expression in interviews, journal entries, performances, and other cultural artifacts using qualitative methods . Because social science studies human interaction and the reality we all create and share in our heads, subjectivists focus on language and other ways we communicate our inner experience. Qualitative methods allow us to scientifically investigate language and other forms of expression—to pursue research questions that explore the words people write and speak. This is consistent with epistemological subjectivism’s focus on individual and shared experiences, interpretations, and stories.

It is important to note that qualitative methods are entirely compatible with seeking objective truth. Approaching qualitative analysis with a more objective perspective, we look simply at what was said and examine its surface-level meaning. If a person says they brought their kids to school that day, then that is what is true. A researcher seeking subjective truth may focus on how the person says the words—their tone of voice, facial expressions, metaphors, and so forth. By focusing on these things, the researcher can understand what it meant to the person to say they dropped their kids off at school. Perhaps in describing dropping their children off at school, the person thought of their parents doing the same thing. In this way, subjective truths are deeper, more personalized, and difficult to generalize.

Putting it all together

As you might guess by the structure of the next two parts of this textbook, the distinction between quantitative and qualitative is important. Because of the distinct philosophical assumptions of objectivity and subjectivity, it will inform how you define the concepts in your research question, how you measure them, and how you gather and interpret your raw data. You certainly do not need to have a final answer right now! But stop for a minute and think about which approach feels right so far. In the next section, we will consider another set of philosophical assumptions that relate to ethics and the role of research in achieving social justice.

Key Takeaways

• Philosophers of science disagree on the basic tenets of what is true and how we come to know what is true.
• Researchers searching for objective truth will likely have a different theoretical framework, research design, and methods than researchers searching for subjective truths.
• These differences are due to different assumptions about what is real and true (ontology) and how we can come to understand what is real and true (epistemology).

Does an objective or subjective epistemological/ontological framework make the most sense for your research project?

• Are you more concerned with how people think and feel about your topic, their subjective truths—more specific to the time and place of your project?
• Or are you more concerned with objective truth, so that your results might generalize to populations beyond the ones in your study?

Using your answer to the above question, describe how either quantitative or qualitative methods make the most sense for your project.

7.2 Ethical and critical considerations

• Apply feminist, anti-racist, and decolonization critiques of social science to your project
• Define axiology and describe the axiological assumptions of your project

So far, we have talked about knowledge as it exists in the world, but what about the process of research itself? Doesn’t the researcher bring their own biases, perspectives, and experiences to the process? The critique of science as an enterprise dominated by the perspectives of white men from North America and Europe is one that has had a profound impact on how we view knowledge. Because scientists design research studies, create measures, and interpret results, there is always the risk that a scientist’s objectivity slips and as a result, biases are expressed.

Consider this example from professional sports. The National Football League (NFL) has long downplayed the lifelong impact of concussions and traumatic brain injury. However, due to the racist science that existed when the issue was first addressed through a settlement in the 1990s, Black players were assumed to have lower cognitive function and were thus any losses in cognitive function were less significant, resulting in a lower payout or additional barriers to an eventual payout (Dale, 2021). [6] It is hard to view this “race-norming” without taking into account the impact of the Bell Curve, a racist and methodologically flawed book that purported to support white intellectual superiority (Bell, 1995). [7] According to an Associated Press report :

The NFL noted that the norms were developed in medicine “to stop bias in testing, not perpetrate it”…The binary race norms, when they are used in the testing, assumes that Black patients start with worse cognitive function than whites and other non-Blacks. That makes it harder for them to show a deficit and qualify for an award. [Two players], for instance, were denied awards but would have qualified had they been white, according to their lawsuit (Dale, 2021, para 10-13).

Part of the value in making the philosophical assumptions of your project explicit is that you can scan for sources of explicit or implicit bias you bring to the research process.

Whose truth does science establish?

Social work is concerned with the “isms” of oppression (ableism, ageism, cissexism, classism, heterosexism, racism, sexism, etc.), and so our approach to science must reconcile its history as both a tool of oppression and its exclusion of oppressed groups. Science grew out of the Enlightenment, a philosophical movement which applied reason and empirical analysis to understanding the world. While the Enlightenment brought forth tremendous achievements, the critiques of Marxian, feminist, and other critical theorists complicated the Enlightenment understanding of science. For this section, I will focus on feminist critiques of science, building upon an entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Crasnow, 2020). [8]

In its original formulation, science was an individualistic endeavor. As we learned in Chapter 1 , a basic statement of the scientific method is that a researcher studies existing theories on a topic, formulates a hypothesis about what might be true, and either confirms or disconfirms their hypothesis through experiment and rigorous observation. Over time, our theories become more accurate in their predictions and more comprehensive in their conclusions. Scientists put aside their preconceptions, look at the data, and build their theories based on objective rationality.

Yet, this cannot be perfectly true. Scientists are human, after all. As a profession historically dominated by white men, scientists have dismissed women and other minorities as being psychologically unfit for the scientific profession. While attitudes have improved, science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and related fields remain dominated by white men (Grogan, 2019). [9] Biases can persist in social work theory and research when social scientists do not have similar experiences to the populations they study.

Gender bias can influence the research questions scientists choose to answer. Feminist critiques of medical science drew attention to women’s health issues, spurring research and changing standards of care. The focus on domestic violence in the empirical literature can also be seen as a result of feminist critique. Thus, critical theory helps us critique what is on the agenda for science. If science is to answer important questions, it must speak to the concerns of all people. Through the democratization in access to scientific knowledge and the means to produce it, science becomes a sister process of social development and social justice.

The goal of a diverse and participatory scientific community lies in contrast to much of what we understand to be “proper” scientific knowledge. Many of the older, classic social science theories were developed based on research which observed males or from university students in the United States or other Western nations. How these observations were made, what questions were asked, and how the data were interpreted were shaped by the same oppressive forces that existed in broader society, a process that continues into the present. In psychology, the concept of hysteria or hysterical women was believed to be caused by a wandering womb (Tasca et al., 2012). [10] Even today, there are gender biases in diagnoses of histrionic personality disorder and racial biases in psychotic disorders (Klonsky et al., 2002) [11] because the theories underlying them were created in a sexist and racist culture. In these ways, science can reinforce the truth of the white Western male perspective.

Finally, it is important to note that social science research is often conducted on populations rather than with populations. Historically, this has often meant Western men traveling to other countries and seeking to understand other cultures through a Western lens. Lacking cultural humility and failing to engage stakeholders, ethnocentric research of this sort has led to the view of non-Western cultures as inferior. Moreover, the use of these populations as research subjects rather than co-equal participants in the research process privileges the researcher’s knowledge over that from other groups or cultures. Researchers working with indigenous cultures, in particular, had a destructive habit of conducting research for a short time and then leaving, without regard for the impact their study had on the population. These critiques of Western science aim to decolonize social science and dismantle the racist ideas the oppress indigenous and non-Western peoples through research (Smith, 2013). [12]

The central concept in feminist, anti-racist, and decolonization critiques (among other critical frames) is epistemic injustice. Epistemic injustice happens when someone is treated unfairly in their capacity to know something or describe their experience of the world. As described by Fricker (2011), [13] the injustice emerges from the dismissal of knowledge from oppressed groups, discrimination against oppressed groups in scientific communities, and the resulting gap between what scientists can make sense of from their experience and the experiences of people with less power who have lived experience of the topic. We recommend this video from Edinburgh Law School which applies epistemic injustice to studying public health emergencies, disabilities, and refugee services .

• Take a moment and reflect on how your life experiences may inform how you understand your topic. What do you already know? How might you be biased?
• Describe how previous or current studies and theories about your topic have been influenced by oppressive forces such as racism and sexism.

Self-determination and free will

When scientists observe social phenomena, they often take the perspective of determinism , meaning that what is seen is the result of processes that occurred earlier in time (i.e., cause and effect). As you will see in Chapter 9 , this process is represented in the classical formulation of a research question which asks “what is the relationship between X (cause) and Y (effect)?” By framing a research question in such a way, the scientist is disregarding any reciprocal influence that Y has on X. Moreover, the scientist also excludes human agency from the equation. It is simply that a cause will necessitate an effect. For example, a researcher might find that few people living in neighborhoods with higher rates of poverty graduate from high school, and thus conclude that poverty causes adolescents to drop out of school. This conclusion, however, does not address the story behind the numbers. Each person who is counted as graduating or dropping out has a unique story of why they made the choices they did. Perhaps they had a mentor or parent that helped them succeed. Perhaps they faced the choice between employment to support family members or continuing in school.

For this reason, determinism is critiqued as reductionistic in the social sciences because people have agency over their actions. This is unlike the natural sciences like physics. While a table isn’t aware of the friction it has with the floor, parents and children are likely aware of the friction in their relationships and act based on how they interpret that conflict. The opposite of determinism is free will , that humans can choose how they act and their behavior and thoughts are not solely determined by what happened prior in a neat, cause-and-effect relationship. Researchers adopting a perspective of free will view the process of, continuing with our education example, seeking higher education as the result of a number of mutually influencing forces and the spontaneous and implicit processes of human thought. For these researchers, the picture painted by determinism is too simplistic.

A similar dichotomy can be found in the debate between individualism and holism . When you hear something like “the disease model of addiction leads to policies that pathologize and oppress people who use drugs,” the speaker is making a methodologically holistic argument. They are making a claim that abstract social forces (the disease model, policies) can cause things to change. A methodological individualist would critique this argument by saying that the disease model of addiction doesn’t actually cause anything by itself. From this perspective, it is the individuals, rather than any abstract social force, who oppress people who use drugs. The disease model itself doesn’t cause anything to change; the individuals who follow the precepts of the disease model are the agents who actually oppress people in reality. To an individualist, all social phenomena are the result of individual human action and agency. To a holist, social forces can determine outcomes for individuals without individuals playing a causal role, undercutting free will and research projects that seek to maximize human agency.

• Is human action, or free will, central to how you understand your topic?
• Or are humans more passive and what happens to them more determined by the social forces that influence their life?
• Reflect on how your project’s assumptions may differ from your own assumptions about free will and determinism. For example, my beliefs about self-determination and free will always inform my social work practice. However, my working question and research project may rely on social theories that are deterministic and do not address human agency.

Radical change

Another assumption scientists make is around the nature of the social world. Is it an orderly place that remains relatively stable over time? Or is it a place of constant change and conflict? The view of the social world as an orderly place can help a researcher describe how things fit together to create a cohesive whole. For example, systems theory can help you understand how different systems interact with and influence one another, drawing energy from one place to another through an interconnected network with a tendency towards homeostasis. This is a more consensus -focused and status-quo-oriented perspective. Yet, this view of the social world cannot adequately explain the radical shifts and revolutions that occur. It also leaves little room for human action and free will. In this more radical space, change consists of the fundamental assumptions about how the social world works.

For example, at the time of this writing, protests are taking place across the world to remember the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and other victims of police violence and systematic racism. Public support of Black Lives Matter , an anti-racist activist group that focuses on police violence and criminal justice reform, has experienced a radical shift in public support in just two weeks since the killing, equivalent to the previous 21 months of advocacy and social movement organizing (Cohn & Quealy, 2020). [14] Abolition of police and prisons , once a fringe idea, has moved into the conversation about remaking the criminal justice system from the ground-up, centering its historic and current role as an oppressive system for Black Americans. Seemingly overnight, reducing the money spent on police and giving that money to social services became a moderate political position.

A researcher centering change may choose to understand this transformation or even incorporate radical anti-racist ideas into the design and methods of their study. For an example of how to do so, see this participatory action research study working with Black and Latino youth (Bautista et al., 2013). [15]  Contrastingly, a researcher centering consensus and the status quo might focus on incremental changes what people currently think about the topic. For example, see this survey of social work student attitudes on poverty and race that seeks to understand the status quo of student attitudes and suggest small changes that might change things for the better (Constance-Huggins et al., 2020). [16] To be clear, both studies contribute to racial justice. However, you can see by examining the methods section of each article how the participatory action research article addresses power and values as a core part of their research design, qualitative ethnography and deep observation over many years, in ways that privilege the voice of people with the least power. In this way, it seeks to rectify the epistemic injustice of excluding and oversimplifying Black and Latino youth. Contrast this more radical approach with the more traditional approach taken in the second article, in which they measured student attitudes using a survey developed by researchers.

• Traditional studies will be less participatory. You as the researcher will determine the research question, how to measure it, data collection, etc.
• Radical studies will be more participatory. You as the researcher seek to undermine power imbalances at each stage of the research process.
• Pragmatically, more participatory studies take longer to complete and may be less suited to student projects that need to be completed in a short time frame.

Axiology: Assumptions about values

Axiology is the study of values and value judgements (literally “rational discourse about values [a​ xía​]”). In philosophy this field is subdivided into ethics (the study of morality) and aesthetics (the study of beauty, taste and judgement). For the hard-nosed scientist, the relevance of axiology might not be obvious. After all, what difference do one’s feelings make for the data collected? Don’t we spend a long time trying to teach researchers to be objective and remove their values from the scientific method?

Like ontology and epistemology, the import of axiology is typically built into research projects and exists “below the surface”. You might not consciously engage with values in a research project, but they are still there. Similarly, you might not hear many researchers refer to their axiological commitments but they might well talk about their values and ethics, their positionality, or a commitment to social justice.

Our values focus and motivate our research. These values could include a commitment to scientific rigor, or to always act ethically as a researcher. At a more general level we might ask: What matters? Why do research at all? How does it contribute to human wellbeing? Almost all research projects are grounded in trying to answer a question that matters or has consequences. Some research projects are even explicit in their intention to improve things rather than observe them. This is most closely associated with “critical” approaches.

Critical and radical views of science focus on how to spread knowledge and information in a way that combats oppression. These questions are central for creating research projects that fight against the objective structures of oppression—like unequal pay—and their subjective counterparts in the mind—like internalized sexism. For example, a more critical research project would fight not only against statutes of limitations for sexual assault but on how women have internalized rape culture as well. Its explicit goal would be to fight oppression and to inform practice on women’s liberation. For this reason, creating change is baked into the research questions and methods used in more critical and radical research projects.

As part of studying radical change and oppression, we are likely employing a model of science that puts values front-and-center within a research project. All social work research is values-driven, as we are a values-driven profession. Historically, though, most social scientists have argued for values-free science. Scientists agree that science helps human progress, but they hold that researchers should remain as objective as possible—which means putting aside politics and personal values that might bias their results, similar to the cognitive biases we discussed in section 1.1. Over the course of last century, this perspective was challenged by scientists who approached research from an explicitly political and values-driven perspective. As we discussed earlier in this section, feminist critiques strive to understand how sexism biases research questions, samples, measures, and conclusions, while decolonization critiques try to de-center the Western perspective of science and truth.

Linking axiology, epistemology, and ontology

It is important to note that both values-central and values-neutral perspectives are useful in furthering social justice. Values-neutral science is helpful at predicting phenomena. Indeed, it matches well with objectivist ontologies and epistemologies. Let’s examine a measure of depression, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PSQ-9) . The authors of this measure spent years creating a measure that accurately and reliably measures the concept of depression. This measure is assumed to measure depression in any person, and scales like this are often translated into other languages (and subsequently validated) for more widespread use . The goal is to measure depression in a valid and reliable manner. We can use this objective measure to predict relationships with other risk and protective factors, such as substance use or poverty, as well as evaluate the impact of evidence-based treatments for depression like narrative therapy.

While measures like the PSQ-9 help with prediction, they do not allow you to understand an individual person’s experience of depression. To do so, you need to listen to their stories and how they make sense of the world. The goal of understanding isn’t to predict what will happen next, but to empathically connect with the person and truly understand what’s happening from their perspective. Understanding fits best in subjectivist epistemologies and ontologies, as they allow for multiple truths (i.e. that multiple interpretations of the same situation are valid). Although all researchers addressing depression are working towards socially just ends, the values commitments researchers make as part of the research process influence them to adopt objective or subjective ontologies and epistemologies.

What role will values play in your study?

• Are you looking to be as objective as possible, putting aside your own values?
• Or are you infusing values into each aspect of your research design?

Remember that although social work is a values-based profession, that does not mean that all social work research is values-informed. The majority of social work research is objective and tries to be value-neutral in how it approaches research.

Philosophical assumptions, as a whole

As you engage with theoretical and empirical information in social work, keep these philosophical assumptions in mind. They are useful shortcuts to understanding the deeper ideas and assumptions behind the construction of knowledge. See Table 7.1 below for a short reference list of the key assumptions we covered in sections 7.1 and 7.2. The purpose of exploring these philosophical assumptions isn’t to find out which is true and which is false. Instead, the goal is to identify the assumptions that fit with how you think about your working question and your personal worldview.

• Feminist, anti-racist, and decolonization critiques of science highlight the often hidden oppressive ideas and structures in science.
• Even though social work is a values-based discipline, most social work research projects are values-neutral because those assumptions fit with the researcher’s question.
• Using your understanding of the conflicts in Table 7.1 and explored in sections 7.1 and 7.2, critique the following (deliberately problematic) statement:

“When a scientist observes the social world, he does so objectively.”

7.3 Social work research paradigms

• Distinguish between the three major research paradigms in social work and apply the assumptions upon which they are built to a student research project

In the previous two sections, we reviewed the three elements to the philosophical foundation of a research method: ontology, epistemology and axiology (Crotty, 1998; Guba & Lincoln, 1994; Heron & Reason, 1997). [17] In this section, you will explore how to apply these philosophical approaches to your research project. In the next section, we will do the same for theory. Keep in mind that it’s easy for us as textbook authors to lay out each step (paradigm, theory, etc.) sequentially, but in reality, research projects are not linear. Researchers rarely proceed by choosing an ontology, epistemology and axiology separately and then deciding which theory and methods to apply. As we discussed in Chapter 2 when you started conceptualizing your project, you should choose something that interests you, is feasible to conduct, and does not pose unethical risks to others. Whatever part or parts your project you have figured out right now, you’re right where you should be—in the middle of conceptualization.

How do scientific ideas change over time?

Much like your ideas develop over time as you learn more, so does the body of scientific knowledge. Kuhn’s (1962) [18] The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is one of the most influential works on the philosophy of science, and is credited with introducing the idea of competing paradigms (or “disciplinary matrices”) in research. Kuhn investigated the way that scientific practices evolve over time, arguing that we don’t have a simple progression from “less knowledge” to “more knowledge” because the way that we approach inquiry is changing over time. This can happen gradually, but the process results in moments of change where our understanding of a phenomenon changes more radically (such as in the transition from Newtonian to Einsteinian physics; or from Lamarckian to Darwinian theories of evolution). For a social work practice example, Fleuridas & Krafcik (2019) [19] trace the development of the “four forces” of psychotherapy , from psychodynamics to behaviorism to humanism as well as the competition among emerging perspectives to establish itself as the fourth force to guide psychotherapeutic practice. But how did the problems in one paradigm inspire new paradigms? Kuhn presents us with a way of understanding the history of scientific development across all topics and disciplines.

As you can see in this video from Matthew J. Brown (CC-BY), there are four stages in the cycle of science in Kuhn’s approach. Firstly, a pre-paradigmatic state where competing approaches share no consensus. Secondly, the “normal” state where there is wide acceptance of a particular set of methods and assumptions. Thirdly, a state of crisis where anomalies that cannot be solved within the existing paradigm emerge and competing theories to address them follow. Fourthly, a revolutionary phase where some new paradigmatic approach becomes dominant and supplants the old. Shnieder (2009) [20] suggests that the Kuhnian phases are characterized by different kinds of scientific activity.

Newer approaches often build upon rather than replace older ones, but they also overlap and can exist within a state of competition. Scientists working within a particular paradigm often share methods, assumptions and values. In addition to supporting specific methods, research paradigms also influence things like the ambition and nature of research, the researcher-participant relationship and how the role of the researcher is understood.

Paradigm vs. theory

The terms ‘ paradigm ‘ and ‘ theory ‘ are often used interchangeably in social science. There is not a consensus among social scientists as to whether these are identical or distinct concepts. With that said, in this text, we will make a clear distinction between the two ideas because thinking about each concept separately is more useful for our purposes.

We define paradigm a set of common philosophical (ontological, epistemological, and axiological) assumptions that inform research. The four paradigms we describe in this section refer to patterns in how groups of researchers resolve philosophical questions. Some assumptions naturally make sense together, and paradigms grow out of researchers with shared assumptions about what is important and how to study it. Paradigms are like “analytic lenses” and a provide framework on top of which we can build theoretical and empirical knowledge (Kuhn, 1962). [21] Consider this video of an interview with world-famous physicist Richard Feynman in which he explains why “when you explain a ‘why,’ you have to be in some framework that you allow something to be true. Otherwise, you are perpetually asking why.” In order to answer basic physics question like “what is happening when two magnets attract?” or a social work research question like “what is the impact of this therapeutic intervention on depression,” you must understand the assumptions you are making about social science and the social world. Paradigmatic assumptions about objective and subjective truth support methodological choices like whether to conduct interviews or send out surveys, for example.

While paradigms are broad philosophical assumptions, theory is more specific, and refers to a set of concepts and relationships scientists use to explain the social world. Theories are more concrete, while paradigms are more abstract. Look back to Figure 7.1 at the beginning of this chapter. Theory helps you identify the concepts and relationships that align with your paradigmatic understanding of the problem. Moreover, theory informs how you will measure the concepts in your research question and the design of your project.

For both theories and paradigms, Kuhn’s observation of scientific paradigms, crises, and revolutions is instructive for understanding the history of science. Researchers inherit institutions, norms, and ideas that are marked by the battlegrounds of theoretical and paradigmatic debates that stretch back hundreds of years. We have necessarily simplified this history into four paradigms: positivism, interpretivism, critical, and pragmatism. Our framework and explanation are inspired by the framework of Guba and Lincoln (1990) [22] and Burrell and Morgan (1979). [23] while also incorporating pragmatism as a way of resolving paradigmatic questions. Most of social work research and theory can be classified as belonging to one of these four paradigms, though this classification system represents only one of many useful approaches to analyzing social science research paradigms.

Building on our discussion in section 7.1 on objective vs. subjective epistemologies and ontologies, we will start with the difference between positivism and interpretivism. Afterward, we will link our discussion of axiology in section 7.2 with the critical paradigm. Finally, we will situate pragmatism as a way to resolve paradigmatic questions strategically. The difference between positivism and interpretivism is a good place to start, since the critical paradigm and pragmatism build on their philosophical insights.

It’s important to think of paradigms less as distinct categories and more as a spectrum along which projects might fall. For example, some projects may be somewhat positivist, somewhat interpretivist, and a little critical. No project fits perfectly into one paradigm. Additionally, there is no paradigm that is more correct than the other. Each paradigm uses assumptions that are logically consistent, and when combined, are a useful approach to understanding the social world using science. The purpose of this section is to acquaint you with what research projects in each paradigm look like and how they are grounded in philosophical assumptions about social science.

You should read this section to situate yourself in terms of what paradigm feels most “at home” to both you as a person and to your project. You may find, as I have, that your research projects are more conventional and less radical than what feels most like home to you, personally. In a research project, however, students should start with their working question rather than their heart. Use the paradigm that fits with your question the best, rather than which paradigm you think fits you the best.

Positivism: Researcher as “expert”

Positivism has its roots in the scientific revolution of the Enlightenment. Positivism is based on the idea that we can come to know facts about the natural world through our experiences of it. The processes that support this are the logical and analytic classification and systemization of these experiences. Through this process of empirical analysis, Positivists aim to arrive at descriptions of law-like relationships and mechanisms that govern the world we experience.

Positivists have traditionally claimed that the only authentic knowledge we have of the world is empirical and scientific. Essentially, positivism downplays any gap between our experiences of the world and the way the world really is; instead, positivism determines objective “facts” through the correct methodological combination of observation and analysis. Data collection methods typically include quantitative measurement, which is supposed to overcome the individual biases of the researcher.

Positivism aspires to high standards of validity and reliability supported by evidence, and has been applied extensively in both physical and social sciences. Its goal is familiar to all students of science: iteratively expanding the evidence base of what we know is true. We can know our observations and analysis describe real world phenomena because researchers separate themselves and objectively observe the world, placing a deep epistemological separation between “the knower” and “what is known” and reducing the possibility of bias. We can all see the logic in separating yourself as much as possible from your study so as not to bias it, even if we know we cannot do so perfectly.

However, the criticism often made of positivism with regard to human and social sciences (e.g. education, psychology, sociology) is that positivism is scientistic ; which is to say that it overlooks differences between the objects in the natural world (tables, atoms, cells, etc.) and the  subjects in the social work (self-aware people living in a complex socio-historical context). In pursuit of the generalizable truth of “hard” science, it fails to adequately explain the many aspects of human experience don’t conform to this way of collecting data. Furthermore, by viewing science as an idealized pursuit of pure knowledge, positivists may ignore the many ways in which power structures our access to scientific knowledge, the tools to create it, and the capital to participate in the scientific community.

Kivunja & Kuyini (2017) [24] describe the essential features of positivism as:

• A belief that theory is universal and law-like generalizations can be made across contexts
• The assumption that context is not important
• The belief that truth or knowledge is ‘out there to be discovered’ by research
• The belief that cause and effect are distinguishable and analytically separable
• The belief that results of inquiry can be quantified
• The belief that theory can be used to predict and to control outcomes
• The belief that research should follow the scientific method of investigation
• Rests on formulation and testing of hypotheses
• Employs empirical or analytical approaches
• Pursues an objective search for facts
• Believes in ability to observe knowledge
• The researcher’s ultimate aim is to establish a comprehensive universal theory, to account for human and social behavior
• Application of the scientific method

Many quantitative researchers now identify as postpositivist. Postpositivism retains the idea that truth should be considered objective, but asserts that our experiences of such truths are necessarily imperfect because they are ameliorated by our values and experiences. Understanding how postpositivism has updated itself in light of the developments in other research paradigms is instructive for developing your own paradigmatic framework. Epistemologically, postpositivists operate on the assumption that human knowledge is based not on the assessments from an objective individual, but rather upon human conjectures. As human knowledge is thus unavoidably conjectural and uncertain, though assertions about what is true and why it is true can be modified or withdrawn in the light of further investigation. However, postpositivism is not a form of relativism, and generally retains the idea of objective truth.

These epistemological assumptions are based on ontological assumptions that an objective reality exists, but contra positivists, they believe reality can be known only imperfectly and probabilistically. While positivists believe that research is or can be value-free or value-neutral, postpositivists take the position that bias is undesired but inevitable, and therefore the investigator must work to detect and try to correct it. Postpositivists work to understand how their axiology (i.e., values and beliefs) may have influenced their research, including through their choice of measures, populations, questions, and definitions, as well as through their interpretation and analysis of their work. Methodologically, they use mixed methods and both quantitative and qualitative methods, accepting the problematic nature of “objective” truths and seeking to find ways to come to a better, yet ultimately imperfect understanding of what is true. A popular form of postpositivism is critical realism , which lies between positivism and interpretivism.

Is positivism right for your project?

Positivism is concerned with understanding what is true for everybody. Social workers whose working question fits best with the positivist paradigm will want to produce data that are generalizable and can speak to larger populations. For this reason, positivistic researchers favor quantitative methods—probability sampling, experimental or survey design, and multiple, and well-established instruments to measure key concepts.

A positivist orientation to research is appropriate when your research question asks for generalizable truths. For example, your working question may look something like : does my agency’s housing intervention lead to fewer periods of homelessness for our clients? It is necessary to study such a relationship quantitatively and objectively. When social workers speak about social problems impacting societies and individuals, they reference positivist research, including experiments and surveys of the general populations. Positivist research is exceptionally good at producing cause-and-effect explanations that apply across many different situations and groups of people. There are many good reasons why positivism is the dominant research paradigm in the social sciences. 

Critiques of positivism stem from two major issues. First and foremost, positivism may not fit the messy, contradictory, and circular world of human relationships. A positivistic approach does not allow the researcher to understand another person’s subjective mental state in detail. This is because the positivist orientation focuses on quantifiable, generalizable data—and therefore encompasses only a small fraction of what may be true in any given situation. This critique is emblematic of the interpretivist paradigm, which we will describe next.

In the section after that, we will describe the critical paradigm, which critiques the positivist paradigm (and the interpretivist paradigm) for focusing too little on social change, values, and oppression. Positivists assume they know what is true, but they often do not incorporate the knowledge and experiences of oppressed people, even when those community members are directly impacted by the research. Positivism has been critiqued as ethnocentrist, patriarchal, and classist (Kincheloe & Tobin, 2009). [25] This leads them to do research on , rather than with populations by excluding them from the conceptualization, design, and impact of a project, a topic we discussed in section 2.4. It also leads them to ignore the historical and cultural context that is important to understanding the social world. The result can be a one-dimensional and reductionist view of reality.

• From your literature search, identify an empirical article that uses quantitative methods to answer a research question similar to your working question or about your research topic.
• Review the assumptions of the positivist research paradigm.
• Discuss in a few sentences how the author’s conclusions are based on some of these paradigmatic assumptions. How might a researcher operating from a different paradigm (e.g., interpretivism, critical) critique these assumptions as well as the conclusions of this study?

Interpretivism: Researcher as “empathizer”

Positivism is focused on generalizable truth. Interpretivism , by contrast, develops from the idea that we want to understand the truths of individuals, how they interpret and experience the world, their thought processes, and the social structures that emerge from sharing those interpretations through language and behavior. The process of interpretation (or social construction) is guided by the empathy of the researcher to understand the meaning behind what other people say.

Historically, interpretivism grew out of a specific critique of positivism: that knowledge in the human and social sciences cannot conform to the model of natural science because there are features of human experience that cannot objectively be “known”. The tools we use to understand objects that have no self-awareness may not be well-attuned to subjective experiences like emotions, understandings, values, feelings, socio-cultural factors, historical influences, and other meaningful aspects of social life. Instead of finding a single generalizable “truth,” the interpretivist researcher aims to generate understanding and often adopts a relativist position.

While positivists seek “the truth,” the social constructionist framework argues that “truth” varies. Truth differs based on who you ask, and people change what they believe is true based on social interactions. These subjective truths also exist within social and historical contexts, and our understanding of truth varies across communities and time periods. This is because we, according to this paradigm, create reality ourselves through our social interactions and our interpretations of those interactions. Key to the interpretivist perspective is the idea that social context and interaction frame our realities.

Researchers operating within this framework take keen interest in how people come to socially agree, or disagree, about what is real and true. Consider how people, depending on their social and geographical context, ascribe different meanings to certain hand gestures. When a person raises their middle finger, those of us in Western cultures will probably think that this person isn’t very happy (not to mention the person at whom the middle finger is being directed!). In other societies around the world, a thumbs-up gesture, rather than a middle finger, signifies discontent (Wong, 2007). [26] The fact that these hand gestures have different meanings across cultures aptly demonstrates that those meanings are socially and collectively constructed. What, then, is the “truth” of the middle finger or thumbs up? As we’ve seen in this section, the truth depends on the intention of the person making the gesture, the interpretation of the person receiving it, and the social context in which the action occurred.

Qualitative methods are preferred as ways to investigate these phenomena. Data collected might be unstructured (or “messy”) and correspondingly a range of techniques for approaching data collection have been developed. Interpretivism acknowledges that it is impossible to remove cultural and individual influence from research, often instead making a virtue of the positionality of the researcher and the socio-cultural context of a study.

One common objection positivists levy against interpretivists is that interpretivism tends to emphasize the subjective over the objective. If the starting point for an investigation is that we can’t fully and objectively know the world, how can we do research into this without everything being a matter of opinion? For the positivist, this risk for confirmation bias as well as invalid and unreliable measures makes interpretivist research unscientific. Clearly, we disagree with this assessment, and you should, too. Positivism and interpretivism have different ontologies and epistemologies with contrasting notions of rigor and validity (for more information on assumptions about measurement, see Chapter 11 for quantitative validity and reliability and Chapter 20 for qualitative rigor). Nevertheless, both paradigms apply the values and concepts of the scientific method through systematic investigation of the social world, even if their assumptions lead them to do so in different ways. Interpretivist research often embraces a relativist epistemology, bringing together different perspectives in search of a trustworthy and authentic understanding or narrative.

Kivunja & Kuyini (2017) [27] describe the essential features of interpretivism as:

• The belief that truths are multiple and socially constructed
• The acceptance that there is inevitable interaction between the researcher and his or her research participants
• The acceptance that context is vital for knowledge and knowing
• The belief that knowledge can be value laden and the researcher’s values need to be made explicit
• The need to understand specific cases and contexts rather deriving universal laws that apply to everyone, everywhere.
• The belief that causes and effects are mutually interdependent, and that causality may be circular or contradictory
• The belief that contextual factors need to be taken into consideration in any systematic pursuit of understanding

One important clarification: it’s important to think of the interpretivist perspective as not just about individual interpretations but the social life of interpretations. While individuals may construct their own realities, groups—from a small one such as a married couple to large ones such as nations—often agree on notions of what is true and what “is” and what “is not.” In other words, the meanings that we construct have power beyond the individuals who create them. Therefore, the ways that people and communities act based on such meanings is of as much interest to interpretivists as how they were created in the first place. Theories like social constructionism, phenomenology, and symbolic interactionism are often used in concert with interpretivism.

Is interpretivism right for your project?

An interpretivist orientation to research is appropriate when your working question asks about subjective truths. The cause-and-effect relationships that interpretivist studies produce are specific to the time and place in which the study happened, rather than a generalizable objective truth. More pragmatically, if you picture yourself having a conversation with participants like an interview or focus group, then interpretivism is likely going to be a major influence for your study.

Positivists critique the interpretivist paradigm as non-scientific. They view the interpretivist focus on subjectivity and values as sources of bias. Positivists and interpretivists differ on the degree to which social phenomena are like natural phenomena. Positivists believe that the assumptions of the social sciences and natural sciences are the same, while interpretivists strongly believe that social sciences differ from the natural sciences because their subjects are social creatures.

Similarly, the critical paradigm finds fault with the interpretivist focus on the status quo rather than social change. Although interpretivists often proceed from a feminist or other standpoint theory, the focus is less on liberation than on understanding the present from multiple perspectives. Other critical theorists may object to the consensus orientation of interpretivist research. By searching for commonalities between people’s stories, they may erase the uniqueness of each individual’s story. For example, while interpretivists may arrive at a consensus definition of what the experience of “coming out” is like for people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer, it cannot represent the diversity of each person’s unique “coming out” experience and what it meant to them. For example, see Rosario and colleagues’ (2009) [28] critique the literature on lesbians “coming out” because previous studies did not addressing how appearing, behaving, or identifying as a butch or femme impacted the experience of “coming out” for lesbians.

• From your literature search, identify an empirical article that uses qualitative methods to answer a research question similar to your working question or about your research topic.
• Review the assumptions of the interpretivist research paradigm.
• Discuss in a few sentences how the author’s conclusions are based on some of these paradigmatic assumptions. How might a researcher operating from a different paradigm (like positivism or the critical paradigm) critique the conclusions of this study?

Critical paradigm: Researcher as “activist”

As we’ve discussed a bit in the preceding sections, the critical paradigm focuses on power, inequality, and social change. Although some rather diverse perspectives are included here, the critical paradigm, in general, includes ideas developed by early social theorists, such as Max Horkheimer (Calhoun et al., 2007), [29] and later works developed by feminist scholars, such as Nancy Fraser (1989). [30] Unlike the positivist paradigm, the critical paradigm assumes that social science can never be truly objective or value-free. Furthermore, this paradigm operates from the perspective that scientific investigation should be conducted with the express goal of social change. Researchers in the critical paradigm foreground axiology, positionality and values . In contrast with the detached, “objective” observations associated with the positivist researcher, critical approaches make explicit the intention for research to act as a transformative or emancipatory force within and beyond the study.

Researchers in the critical paradigm might start with the knowledge that systems are biased against certain groups, such as women or ethnic minorities, building upon previous theory and empirical data. Moreover, their research projects are designed not only to collect data, but to impact the participants as well as the systems being studied. The critical paradigm applies its study of power and inequality to change those power imbalances as part of the research process itself. If this sounds familiar to you, you may remember hearing similar ideas when discussing social conflict theory in your human behavior in the social environment (HBSE) class. [31] Because of this focus on social change, the critical paradigm is a natural home for social work research. However, we fall far short of adopting this approach widely in our profession’s research efforts.

Is the critical paradigm right for your project?

Every social work research project impacts social justice in some way. What distinguishes critical research is how it integrates an analysis of power into the research process itself. Critical research is appropriate for projects that are activist in orientation. For example, critical research projects should have working questions that explicitly seek to raise the consciousness of an oppressed group or collaborate equitably with community members and clients to addresses issues of concern. Because of their transformative potential, critical research projects can be incredibly rewarding to complete. However, partnerships take a long time to develop and social change can evolve slowly on an issue, making critical research projects a more challenging fit for student research projects which must be completed under a tight deadline with few resources.

Positivists critique the critical paradigm on multiple fronts. First and foremost, the focus on oppression and values as part of the research process is seen as likely to bias the research process, most problematically, towards confirmation bias. If you start out with the assumption that oppression exists and must be dealt with, then you are likely to find that regardless of whether it is truly there or not. Similarly, positivists may fault critical researchers for focusing on how the world should be, rather than how it truly is . In this, they may focus too much on theoretical and abstract inquiry and less on traditional experimentation and empirical inquiry. Finally, the goal of social transformation is seen as inherently unscientific, as science is not a political practice.

Interpretivists often find common cause with critical researchers. Feminist studies, for example, may explore the perspectives of women while centering gender-based oppression as part of the research process. In interpretivist research, the focus is less on radical change as part of the research process and more on small, incremental changes based on the results and conclusions drawn from the research project. Additionally, some critical researchers’ focus on individuality of experience is in stark contrast to the consensus-orientation of interpretivists. Interpretivists seek to understand people’s true selves. Some critical theorists argue that people have multiple selves or no self at all.

• From your literature search, identify an article relevant to your working question or broad research topic that uses a critical perspective. You should look for articles where the authors are clear that they are applying a critical approach to research like feminism, anti-racism, Marxism and critical theory, decolonization, anti-oppressive practice, or other social justice-focused theoretical perspectives. To target your search further, include keywords in your queries to research methods commonly used in the critical paradigm like participatory action research and community-based participatory research. If you have trouble identifying an article for this exercise, consult your professor for some help. These articles may be more challenging to find, but reviewing one is necessary to get a feel for what research in this paradigm is like.
• Review the assumptions of the critical research paradigm.
• Discuss in a few sentences how the author’s conclusions are based on some of these paradigmatic assumptions. How might a researcher operating from different assumptions (like values-neutrality or researcher as neutral and unbiased) critique the conclusions of this study?

Pragmatism: Researcher as “strategist”

“Essentially, all models are wrong but some are useful.” (Box, 1976) [32]

Pragmatism is a research paradigm that suspends questions of philosophical ‘truth’ and focuses more on how different philosophies, theories, and methods can be used strategically to provide a multidimensional view of a topic. Researchers employing pragmatism will mix elements of positivist, interpretivist, and critical research depending on the purpose of a particular project and the practical constraints faced by the researcher and their research context. We favor this approach for student projects because it avoids getting bogged down in choosing the “right” paradigm and instead focuses on the assumptions that help you answer your question, given the limitations of your research context. Student research projects are completed quickly and moving in the direction of pragmatism can be a route to successfully completing a project. Your project is a representation of what you think is feasible, ethical, and important enough for you to study.

The crucial consideration for the pragmatist is whether the outcomes of research have any real-world application, rather than whether they are “true.” The methods, theories, and philosophies chosen by pragmatic researchers are guided by their working question. There are no distinctively pragmatic research methods since this approach is about making judicious use whichever methods fit best with the problem under investigation. Pragmatic approaches may be less likely to prioritize ontological, epistemological or axiological consistency when combining different research methods. Instead, the emphasis is on solving a pressing problem and adapting to the limitations and opportunities in the researchers’ context.

Adopt a multi-paradigmatic perspective

Believe it or not, there is a long literature of acrimonious conflict between scientists from positivist, interpretivist, and critical camps (see Heineman-Pieper et al., 2002 [33] for a longer discussion). Pragmatism is an old idea, but it is appealing precisely because it attempts to resolve the problem of multiple incompatible philosophical assumptions in social science. To a pragmatist, there is no “correct” paradigm. All paradigms rely on assumptions about the social world that are the subject of philosophical debate. Each paradigm is an incomplete understanding of the world, and it requires a scientific community using all of them to gain a comprehensive view of the social world. This multi-paradigmatic perspective is a unique gift of social work research, as our emphasis on empathy and social change makes us more critical of positivism, the dominant paradigm in social science.

We offered the metaphors of expert, empathizer, activist, and strategist for each paradigm. It’s important not to take these labels too seriously. For example, some may view that scientists should be experts or that activists are biased and unscientific. Nevertheless, we hope that these metaphors give you a sense of what it feels like to conduct research within each paradigm.

One of the unique aspects of paradigmatic thinking is that often where you think you are most at home may actually be the opposite of where your research project is. For example, in my graduate and doctoral education, I thought I was a critical researcher. In fact, I thought I was a radical researcher focused on social change and transformation. Yet, often times when I sit down to conceptualize and start a research project, I find myself squarely in the positivist paradigm, thinking through neat cause-and-effect relationships that can be mathematically measured. There is nothing wrong with that! Your task for your research project is to find the paradigm that best matches your research question. Think through what you really want to study and how you think about the topic, then use assumptions of that paradigm to guide your inquiry.

Another important lesson is that no research project fits perfectly in one paradigm or another. Instead, there is a spectrum along which studies are, to varying degrees, interpretivist, positivist, and critical. For example, all social work research is a bit activist in that our research projects are designed to inform action for change on behalf of clients and systems. However, some projects will focus on the conclusions and implications of projects informing social change (i.e., positivist and interpretivist projects) while others will partner with community members and design research projects collaboratively in a way that leads to social change (i.e. critical projects). In section 7.5, we will describe a pragmatic approach to research design guided by your paradigmatic and theoretical framework.

• Social work research falls, to some degree, in each of the four paradigms: positivism, interpretivism, critical, and pragmatist.
• Adopting a pragmatic, multi-paradigmatic approach to research makes sense for student researchers, as it directs students to use the philosophical assumptions and methodological approaches that best match their research question and research context.
• Research in all paradigms is necessary to come to a comprehensive understanding of a topic, and social workers must be able to understand and apply knowledge from each research paradigm.
• Describe which paradigm best fits your perspective on the world and which best fits with your project.
• Identify any similarities and differences in your personal assumptions and the assumption your research project relies upon. For example, are you a more critical and radical thinker but have chosen a more “expert” role for yourself in your research project?

7.4 Developing your theoretical framework

• Differentiate between theories that explain specific parts of the social world versus those that are more broad and sweeping in their conclusions
• Identify the theoretical perspectives that are relevant to your project and inform your thinking about it
• Define key concepts in your working question and develop a theoretical framework for how you understand your topic.

Much like paradigms, theories provide a way of looking at the world and of understanding human interaction. Paradigms are grounded in big assumptions about the world—what is real, how do we create knowledge—whereas theories describe more specific phenomena. Well, we are still oversimplifying a bit. Some theories try to explain the whole world, while others only try to explain a small part. Some theories can be grouped together based on common ideas but retain their own individual and unique features. Our goal is to help you find a theoretical framework that helps you understand your topic more deeply and answer your working question.

Theories: Big and small

In your human behavior and the social environment (HBSE) class, you were introduced to the major theoretical perspectives that are commonly used in social work. These are what we like to call big-T ‘T’heories. When you read about systems theory, you are actually reading a synthesis of decades of distinct, overlapping, and conflicting theories that can be broadly classified within systems theory. For example, within systems theory, some approaches focus more on family systems while others focus on environmental systems, though the core concepts remain similar.

Different theorists define concepts in their own way, and as a result, their theories may explore different relationships with those concepts. For example, Deci and Ryan’s (1985) [34] self-determination theory discusses motivation and establishes that it is contingent on meeting one’s needs for autonomy, competency, and relatedness. By contrast, ecological self-determination theory, as written by Abery & Stancliffe (1996), [35] argues that self-determination is the amount of control exercised by an individual over aspects of their lives they deem important across the micro, meso, and macro levels. If self-determination were an important concept in your study, you would need to figure out which of the many theories related to self-determination helps you address your working question.

Theories can provide a broad perspective on the key concepts and relationships in the world or more specific and applied concepts and perspectives. Table 7.2 summarizes two commonly used lists of big-T Theoretical perspectives in social work. See if you can locate some of the theories that might inform your project.

Competing theoretical explanations

Within each area of specialization in social work, there are many other theories that aim to explain more specific types of interactions. For example, within the study of sexual harassment, different theories posit different explanations for why harassment occurs.

One theory, first developed by criminologists, is called routine activities theory. It posits that sexual harassment is most likely to occur when a workplace lacks unified groups and when potentially vulnerable targets and motivated offenders are both present (DeCoster, Estes, & Mueller, 1999). [38]

Other theories of sexual harassment, called relational theories, suggest that one’s existing relationships are the key to understanding why and how workplace sexual harassment occurs and how people will respond when it does occur (Morgan, 1999). [39] Relational theories focus on the power that different social relationships provide (e.g., married people who have supportive partners at home might be more likely than those who lack support at home to report sexual harassment when it occurs).

Finally, feminist theories of sexual harassment take a different stance. These theories posit that the organization of our current gender system, wherein those who are the most masculine have the most power, best explains the occurrence of workplace sexual harassment (MacKinnon, 1979). [40] As you might imagine, which theory a researcher uses to examine the topic of sexual harassment will shape the questions asked about harassment. It will also shape the explanations the researcher provides for why harassment occurs.

For a graduate student beginning their study of a new topic, it may be intimidating to learn that there are so many theories beyond what you’ve learned in your theory classes. What’s worse is that there is no central database of theories on your topic. However, as you review the literature in your area, you will learn more about the theories scientists have created to explain how your topic works in the real world. There are other good sources for theories, in addition to journal articles. Books often contain works of theoretical and philosophical importance that are beyond the scope of an academic journal. Do a search in your university library for books on your topic, and you are likely to find theorists talking about how to make sense of your topic. You don’t necessarily have to agree with the prevailing theories about your topic, but you do need to be aware of them so you can apply theoretical ideas to your project.

Applying big-T theories to your topic

The key to applying theories to your topic is learning the key concepts associated with that theory and the relationships between those concepts, or propositions . Again, your HBSE class should have prepared you with some of the most important concepts from the theoretical perspectives listed in Table 7.2. For example, the conflict perspective sees the world as divided into dominant and oppressed groups who engage in conflict over resources. If you were applying these theoretical ideas to your project, you would need to identify which groups in your project are considered dominant or oppressed groups, and which resources they were struggling over. This is a very general example. Challenge yourself to find small-t theories about your topic that will help you understand it in much greater detail and specificity. If you have chosen a topic that is relevant to your life and future practice, you will be doing valuable work shaping your ideas towards social work practice.

Integrating theory into your project can be easy, or it can take a bit more effort. Some people have a strong and explicit theoretical perspective that they carry with them at all times. For me, you’ll probably see my work drawing from exchange and choice, social constructionist, and critical theory. Maybe you have theoretical perspectives you naturally employ, like Afrocentric theory or person-centered practice. If so, that’s a great place to start since you might already be using that theory (even subconsciously) to inform your understanding of your topic. But if you aren’t aware of whether you are using a theoretical perspective when you think about your topic, try writing a paragraph off the top of your head or talking with a friend explaining what you think about that topic. Try matching it with some of the ideas from the broad theoretical perspectives from Table 7.2. This can ground you as you search for more specific theories. Some studies are designed to test whether theories apply the real world while others are designed to create new theories or variations on existing theories. Consider which feels more appropriate for your project and what you want to know.

Another way to easily identify the theories associated with your topic is to look at the concepts in your working question. Are these concepts commonly found in any of the theoretical perspectives in Table 7.2? Take a look at the Payne and Hutchison texts and see if any of those look like the concepts and relationships in your working question or if any of them match with how you think about your topic. Even if they don’t possess the exact same wording, similar theories can help serve as a starting point to finding other theories that can inform your project. Remember, HBSE textbooks will give you not only the broad statements of theories but also sources from specific theorists and sub-theories that might be more applicable to your topic. Skim the references and suggestions for further reading once you find something that applies well.

Choose a theoretical perspective from Hutchison, Payne, or another theory textbook that is relevant to your project. Using their textbooks or other reputable sources, identify :

• At least five important concepts from the theory
• What relationships the theory establishes between these important concepts (e.g., as x increases, the y decreases)
• How you can use this theory to better understand the concepts and variables in your project?

Developing your own theoretical framework

Hutchison’s and Payne’s frameworks are helpful for surveying the whole body of literature relevant to social work, which is why they are so widely used. They are one framework, or way of thinking, about all of the theories social workers will encounter that are relevant to practice. Social work researchers should delve further and develop a theoretical or conceptual framework of their own based on their reading of the literature. In Chapter 8 , we will develop your theoretical framework further, identifying the cause-and-effect relationships that answer your working question. Developing a theoretical framework is also instructive for revising and clarifying your working question and identifying concepts that serve as keywords for additional literature searching. The greater clarity you have with your theoretical perspective, the easier each subsequent step in the research process will be.

Getting acquainted with the important theoretical concepts in a new area can be challenging. While social work education provides a broad overview of social theory, you will find much greater fulfillment out of reading about the theories related to your topic area. We discussed some strategies for finding theoretical information in Chapter 3 as part of literature searching. To extend that conversation a bit, some strategies for searching for theories in the literature include:

• Consider searching for these keywords in the title or abstract, specifically
• Looking at the references and cited by links within theoretical articles and textbooks
• Looking at books, edited volumes, and textbooks that discuss theory
• Talking with a scholar on your topic, or asking a professor if they can help connect you to someone
• Nice authors are clear about how they use theory to inform their research project, usually in the introduction and discussion section.
• For example, from the broad umbrella of systems theory, you might pick out family systems theory if you want to understand the effectiveness of a family counseling program.

It’s important to remember that knowledge arises within disciplines, and that disciplines have different theoretical frameworks for explaining the same topic. While it is certainly important for the social work perspective to be a part of your analysis, social workers benefit from searching across disciplines to come to a more comprehensive understanding of the topic. Reaching across disciplines can provide uncommon insights during conceptualization, and once the study is completed, a multidisciplinary researcher will be able to share results in a way that speaks to a variety of audiences. A study by An and colleagues (2015) [41] uses game theory from the discipline of economics to understand problems in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. In order to receive TANF benefits, mothers must cooperate with paternity and child support requirements unless they have “good cause,” as in cases of domestic violence, in which providing that information would put the mother at greater risk of violence. Game theory can help us understand how TANF recipients and caseworkers respond to the incentives in their environment, and highlight why the design of the “good cause” waiver program may not achieve its intended outcome of increasing access to benefits for survivors of family abuse.

Of course, there are natural limits on the depth with which student researchers can and should engage in a search for theory about their topic. At minimum, you should be able to draw connections across studies and be able to assess the relative importance of each theory within the literature. Just because you found one article applying your theory (like game theory, in our example above) does not mean it is important or often used in the domestic violence literature. Indeed, it would be much more common in the family violence literature to find psychological theories of trauma, feminist theories of power and control, and similar theoretical perspectives used to inform research projects rather than game theory, which is equally applicable to survivors of family violence as workers and bosses at a corporation. Consider using the Cited By feature to identify articles, books, and other sources of theoretical information that are seminal or well-cited in the literature. Similarly, by using the name of a theory in the keywords of a search query (along with keywords related to your topic), you can get a sense of how often the theory is used in your topic area. You should have a sense of what theories are commonly used to analyze your topic, even if you end up choosing a different one to inform your project.

Theories that are not cited or used as often are still immensely valuable. As we saw before with TANF and “good cause” waivers, using theories from other disciplines can produce uncommon insights and help you make a new contribution to the social work literature. Given the privileged position that the social work curriculum places on theories developed by white men, students may want to explore Afrocentricity as a social work practice theory (Pellebon, 2007) [42] or abolitionist social work (Jacobs et al., 2021) [43] when deciding on a theoretical framework for their research project that addresses concepts of racial justice. Start with your working question, and explain how each theory helps you answer your question. Some explanations are going to feel right, and some concepts will feel more salient to you than others. Keep in mind that this is an iterative process. Your theoretical framework will likely change as you continue to conceptualize your research project, revise your research question, and design your study.

By trying on many different theoretical explanations for your topic area, you can better clarify your own theoretical framework. Some of you may be fortunate enough to find theories that match perfectly with how you think about your topic, are used often in the literature, and are therefore relatively straightforward to apply. However, many of you may find that a combination of theoretical perspectives is most helpful for you to investigate your project. For example, maybe the group counseling program for which you are evaluating client outcomes draws from both motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy. In order to understand the change happening in the client population, you would need to know each theory separately as well as how they work in tandem with one another. Because theoretical explanations and even the definitions of concepts are debated by scientists, it may be helpful to find a specific social scientist or group of scientists whose perspective on the topic you find matches with your understanding of the topic. Of course, it is also perfectly acceptable to develop your own theoretical framework, though you should be able to articulate how your framework fills a gap within the literature.

If you are adapting theoretical perspectives in your study, it is important to clarify the original authors’ definitions of each concept. Jabareen (2009) [44] offers that conceptual frameworks are not merely collections of concepts but, rather, constructs in which each concept plays an integral role. [45] A conceptual framework is a network of linked concepts that together provide a comprehensive understanding of a phenomenon. Each concept in a conceptual framework plays an ontological or epistemological role in the framework, and it is important to assess whether the concepts and relationships in your framework make sense together. As your framework takes shape, you will find yourself integrating and grouping together concepts, thinking about the most important or least important concepts, and how each concept is causally related to others.

Much like paradigm, theory plays a supporting role for the conceptualization of your research project. Recall the ice float from Figure 7.1. Theoretical explanations support the design and methods you use to answer your research question. In student projects that lack a theoretical framework, I often see the biases and errors in reasoning that we discussed in Chapter 1 that get in the way of good social science. That’s because theories mark which concepts are important, provide a framework for understanding them, and measure their interrelationships. If you are missing this foundation, you will operate on informal observation, messages from authority, and other forms of unsystematic and unscientific thinking we reviewed in Chapter 1 .

Theory-informed inquiry is incredibly helpful for identifying key concepts and how to measure them in your research project, but there is a risk in aligning research too closely with theory. The theory-ladenness of facts and observations produced by social science research means that we may be making our ideas real through research. This is a potential source of confirmation bias in social science. Moreover, as Tan (2016) [46] demonstrates, social science often proceeds by adopting as true the perspective of Western and Global North countries, and cross-cultural research is often when ethnocentric and biased ideas are most visible . In her example, a researcher from the West studying teacher-centric classrooms in China that rely partially on rote memorization may view them as less advanced than student-centered classrooms developed in a Western country simply because of Western philosophical assumptions about the importance of individualism and self-determination. Developing a clear theoretical framework is a way to guard against biased research, and it will establish a firm foundation on which you will develop the design and methods for your study.

• Just as empirical evidence is important for conceptualizing a research project, so too are the key concepts and relationships identified by social work theory.
• Using theory your theory textbook will provide you with a sense of the broad theoretical perspectives in social work that might be relevant to your project.
• Try to find small-t theories that are more specific to your topic area and relevant to your working question.

In Chapter 2 , you developed a concept map for your proposal. Take a moment to revisit your concept map now as your theoretical framework is taking shape. Make any updates to the key concepts and relationships in your concept map. . If you need a refresher, we have embedded a short how-to video from the University of Guelph Library (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0) that we also used in Chapter 2 .

7.5 Designing your project using theory and paradigm

• Apply the assumptions of each paradigm to your project
• Summarize what aspects of your project stem from positivist, interpretivist, or critical assumptions

In the previous sections, we reviewed the major paradigms and theories in social work research. In this section, we will provide an example of how to apply theory and paradigm in research. This process is depicted in Figure 7.2 below with some quick summary questions for each stage. Some questions in the figure below have example answers like designs (i.e., experimental, survey) and data analysis approaches (i.e., discourse analysis). These examples are arbitrary. There are a lot of options that are not listed. So, don’t feel like you have to memorize them or use them in your study.

This diagram (taken from an archived Open University (UK) course entitled E89 ​- Educational Inquiry ) ​ shows one way to visualize the research design process. While research is far from linear, in general, this is how research projects progress sequentially. Researchers begin with a working question, and through engaging with the literature, develop and refine those questions into research questions (a process we will finalize in Chapter 9 ). But in order to get to the part where you gather your sample, measure your participants, and analyze your data, you need to start with paradigm. Based on your work in section 7.3, you should have a sense of which paradigm or paradigms are best suited to answering your question. The approach taken will often reflect the nature of the research question; the kind of data it is possible to collect; and work previously done in the area under consideration. When evaluating paradigm and theory, it is important to look at what other authors have done previously and the framework used by studies that are similar to the one you are thinking of conducting.

Once you situate your project in a research paradigm, it becomes possible to start making concrete choices about methods. Depending on the project, this will involve choices about things like:

• What is my final research question?
• What are the key variables and concepts under investigation, and how will I measure them?
• How do I find a representative sample of people who experience the topic I’m studying?
• What design is most appropriate for my research question?
• How will I collect and analyze data?
• How do I determine whether my results describe real patterns in the world or are the result of bias or error?

The data collection phase can begin once these decisions are made. It can be very tempting to start collecting data as soon as possible in the research process as this gives a sense of progress. However, it is usually worth getting things exactly right before collecting data as an error found in your approach further down the line can be harder to correct or recalibrate around.

Designing a study using paradigm and theory: An example

Paradigm and theory have the potential to turn some people off since there is a lot of abstract terminology and thinking about real-world social work practice contexts. In this section, I’ll use an example from my own research, and I hope it will illustrate a few things. First, it will show that paradigms are really just philosophical statements about things you already understand and think about normally. It will also show that no project neatly sits in one paradigm and that a social work researcher should use whichever paradigm or combination of paradigms suit their question the best. Finally, I hope it is one example of how to be a pragmatist and strategically use the strengths of different theories and paradigms to answering a research question. We will pick up the discussion of mixed methods in the next chapter.

Thinking as an expert: Positivism

In my undergraduate research methods class, I used an open textbook much like this one and wanted to study whether it improved student learning. You can read a copy of the article we wrote on based on our study . We’ll learn more about the specifics of experiments and evaluation research in Chapter 13 , but you know enough to understand what evaluating an intervention might look like. My first thought was to conduct an experiment, which placed me firmly within the positivist or “expert” paradigm.

Experiments focus on isolating the relationship between cause and effect. For my study, this meant studying an open textbook (the cause, or intervention) and final grades (the effect, or outcome). Notice that my position as “expert” lets me assume many things in this process. First, it assumes that I can distill the many dimensions of student learning into one number—the final grade. Second, as the “expert,” I’ve determined what the intervention is: indeed, I created the book I was studying, and applied a theory from experts in the field that explains how and why it should impact student learning.

Theory is part of applying all paradigms, but I’ll discuss its impact within positivism first. Theories grounded in positivism help explain why one thing causes another. More specifically, these theories isolate a causal relationship between two (or more) concepts while holding constant the effects of other variables that might confound the relationship between the key variables. That is why experimental design is so common in positivist research. The researcher isolates the environment from anything that might impact or bias the cause and effect relationship they want to investigate.

But in order for one thing to lead to change in something else, there must be some logical, rational reason why it would do so. In open education, there are a few hypotheses (though no full-fledged theories) on why students might perform better using open textbooks. The most common is the access hypothesis , which states that students who cannot afford expensive textbooks or wouldn’t buy them anyway can access open textbooks because they are free, which will improve their grades. It’s important to note that I held this theory prior to starting the experiment, as in positivist research you spell out your hypotheses in advance and design an experiment to support or refute that hypothesis.

Notice that the hypothesis here applies not only to the people in my experiment, but to any student in higher education. Positivism seeks generalizable truth, or what is true for everyone. The results of my study should provide evidence that  anyone  who uses an open textbook would achieve similar outcomes. Of course, there were a number of limitations as it was difficult to tightly control the study. I could not randomly assign students or prevent them from sharing resources with one another, for example. So, while this study had many positivist elements, it was far from a perfect positivist study because I was forced to adapt to the pragmatic limitations of my research context (e.g., I cannot randomly assign students to classes) that made it difficult to establish an objective, generalizable truth.

Thinking like an empathizer: Interpretivism

One of the things that did not sit right with me about the study was the reliance on final grades to signify everything that was going on with students. I added another quantitative measure that measured research knowledge, but this was still too simplistic. I wanted to understand how students used the book and what they thought about it. I could create survey questions that ask about these things, but to get at the subjective truths here, I thought it best to use focus groups in which students would talk to one another with a researcher moderating the discussion and guiding it using predetermined questions. You will learn more about focus groups in Chapter 18 .

Researchers spoke with small groups of students during the last class of the semester. They prompted people to talk about aspects of the textbook they liked and didn’t like, compare it to textbooks from other classes, describe how they used it, and so forth. It was this focus on  understanding and subjective experience that brought us into the interpretivist paradigm. Alongside other researchers, I created the focus group questions but encouraged researchers who moderated the focus groups to allow the conversation to flow organically.

We originally started out with the assumption, for which there is support in the literature, that students would be angry with the high-cost textbook that we used prior to the free one, and this cost shock might play a role in students’ negative attitudes about research. But unlike the hypotheses in positivism, these are merely a place to start and are open to revision throughout the research process. This is because the researchers are not the experts, the participants are! Just like your clients are the experts on their lives, so were the students in my study. Our job as researchers was to create a group in which they would reveal their informed thoughts about the issue, coming to consensus around a few key themes.

When we initially analyzed the focus groups, we uncovered themes that seemed to fit the data. But the overall picture was murky. How were themes related to each other? And how could we distill these themes and relationships into something meaningful? We went back to the data again. We could do this because there isn’t one truth, as in positivism, but multiple truths and multiple ways of interpreting the data. When we looked again, we focused on some of the effects of having a textbook customized to the course. It was that customization process that helped make the language more approachable, engaging, and relevant to social work practice.

Ultimately, our data revealed differences in how students perceived a free textbook versus a free textbook that is customized to the class. When we went to interpret this finding, the remix  hypothesis of open textbook was helpful in understanding that relationship. It states that the more faculty incorporate editing and creating into the course, the better student learning will be. Our study helped flesh out that theory by discussing the customization process and how students made sense of a customized resource.

In this way, theoretical analysis operates differently in interpretivist research. While positivist research tests existing theories, interpretivist research creates theories based on the stories of research participants. However, it is difficult to say if this theory was totally emergent in the dataset or if my prior knowledge of the remix hypothesis influenced my thinking about the data. Interpretivist researchers are encouraged to put a box around their prior experiences and beliefs, acknowledging them, but trying to approach the data with fresh eyes. Interpretivists know that this is never perfectly possible, though, as we are always influenced by our previous experiences when interpreting data and conducting scientific research projects.

Thinking like an activist: Critical

Although adding focus groups helped ease my concern about reducing student learning down to just final grades by providing a more rich set of conversations to analyze. However, my role as researcher and “expert” was still an important part of the analysis. As someone who has been out of school for a while, and indeed has taught this course for years, I have lost touch with what it is like to be a student taking research methods for the first time. How could I accurately interpret or understand what students were saying? Perhaps I would overlook things that reflected poorly on my teaching or my book. I brought other faculty researchers on board to help me analyze the data, but this still didn’t feel like enough.

By luck, an undergraduate student approached me about wanting to work together on a research project. I asked her if she would like to collaborate on evaluating the textbook with me. Over the next year, she assisted me with conceptualizing the project, creating research questions, as well as conducting and analyzing the focus groups. Not only would she provide an “insider” perspective on coding the data, steeped in her lived experience as a student, but she would serve as a check on my power through the process.

Including people from the group you are measuring as part of your research team is a common component of critical research. Ultimately, critical theorists would find my study to be inadequate in many ways. I still developed the research question, created the intervention, and wrote up the results for publication, which privileges my voice and role as “expert.” Instead, critical theorists would emphasize the role of students (community members) in identifying research questions, choosing the best intervention to used, and so forth. But collaborating with students as part of a research team did address some of the power imbalances in the research process.

Critical research projects also aim to have an impact on the people and systems involved in research. No students or researchers had profound personal realizations as a result of my study, nor did it lessen the impact of oppressive structures in society. I can claim some small victory that my department switched to using my textbook after the study was complete (changing a system), though this was likely the result of factors other than the study (my advocacy for open textbooks).

Social work research is almost always designed to create change for people or systems. To that end, every social work project is at least somewhat critical. However, the additional steps of conducting research with people rather than on people reveal a depth to the critical paradigm. By bringing students on board the research team, study had student perspectives represented in conceptualization, data collection, and analysis. That said, there was much to critique about this study from a critical perspective. I retained a lot of the power in the research process, and students did not have the ability to determine the research question or purpose of the project. For example, students might likely have said that textbook costs and the quality of their research methods textbook were less important than student debt, racism, or other potential issues experienced by students in my class. Instead of a ground-up research process based in community engagement, my research included some important participation by students on project created and led by faculty.

Conceptualization is an iterative process

I hope this conversation was useful in applying paradigms to a research project. While my example discusses education research, the same would apply for social work research about social welfare programs, clinical interventions, or other topics. Paradigm and theory are covered at the beginning of the conceptualization of your project because these assumptions will structure the rest of your project. Each of the research steps that occur after this chapter (e.g., forming a question, choosing a design) rely upon philosophical and theoretical assumptions. As you continue conceptualizing your project over the next few weeks, you may find yourself shifting between paradigms. That is normal, as conceptualization is not a linear process. As you move through the next steps of conceptualizing and designing a project, you’ll find philosophies and theories that best match how you want to study your topic.

Viewing theoretical and empirical arguments through this lens is one of the true gifts of the social work approach to research. The multi-paradigmatic perspective is a hallmark of social work research and one that helps us contribute something unique on research teams and in practice.

• Multi-paradigmatic research is a distinguishing hallmark of social work research. Understanding the limitations and strengths of each paradigm will help you justify your research approach and strategically choose elements from one or more paradigms to answer your question.
• Paradigmatic assumptions help you understand the “blind spots” in your research project and how to adjust and address these areas. Keep in mind, it is not necessary to address all of your blind spots, as all projects have limitations.
• Sketch out which paradigm applies best to your project. Second, building on your answer to the exercise in section 7.3, identify how the theory you chose and the paradigm in which you find yourself are consistent or are in conflict with one another. For example, if you are using systems theory in a positivist framework, you might talk about how they both rely on a deterministic approach to human behavior with a focus on the status-quo and social order.

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• ignorance-1993615_1920 © Rilsonav
• puppet-5926178_1280 © Mohamed Hassan
• hold-544519_1920 © johnhain
• executive-2051419_1920 © Gerd Altmann
• compassion-857765_1920 © John Hain is licensed under a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license
• Climate Camp UK 2007 © Independent Media Centre Ireland is licensed under a CC BY-NC (Attribution NonCommercial) license
• strategy-4496456_1280 © Megan Rexazin
• chaos-3098693_1920 © geralt
• post-it-4129907_1920 © Stux is licensed under a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license
• Figure 7.2 The research design process © Global OER Graduate Network is licensed under a CC BY (Attribution) license
• hands-1697896_1920 © Geralt
• Koerth, M. & Thomson-DeVeaux, A. (2020, August 3). Many Americans are convinced crime is rising in the U.S. They're wrong. FiveThirtyEight . Retrieved from: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/many-americans-are-convinced-crime-is-rising-in-the-u-s-theyre-wrong ↵
• Burrell, G. & Morgan, G. (1979). Sociological paradigms and organizational analysis . Routledge. ↵
• Here are links to two HBSE open textbooks, if you are unfamiliar with social work theories. https://uark.pressbooks.pub/hbse1/ and https://uark.pressbooks.pub/humanbehaviorandthesocialenvironment2/ ↵
• Lin, C. T. (2016). A critique of epistemic subjectivity. Philosophia, 44 (3), 915-920. ↵
• Wills, J. W. (2007).  World views, paradigms and the practice of social science research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. ↵
• Dale, M. (2021, June 2). NFL pledges to half 'race-norming,' review Black claims. Associated Press . Retrieved from: https://apnews.com/article/pa-state-wire-race-and-ethnicity-health-nfl-sports-205b304c0c3724532d74fc54e58b4d1d ↵
• Bell, D. A. (1995). Who's afraid of critical race theory.  University of Illinois Law Review, 1995(4),  893-910. ↵
• Crasnow, S. (2020). Feminist perspectives on science. In E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2020 Edition). Retrieved from: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminist-science/ ↵
• Grogan, K.E. (2019) How the entire scientific community can confront gender bias in the workplace. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 3 ,  3–6. doi:10.1038/s41559-018-0747-4 ↵
• Tasca, C., Rapetti, M., Carta, M. G., & Fadda, B. (2012). Women and hysteria in the history of mental health. Clinical practice and epidemiology in mental health: Clinical practice & epidemiology in mental health ,  8 , 110-119. ↵
• Klonsky, E. D., Jane, J. S., Turkheimer, E., & Oltmanns, T. F. (2002). Gender role and personality disorders.  Journal of personality disorders ,  16 (5), 464-476. ↵
• Smith, L. T. (2013). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples . Zed Books Ltd. ↵
• Fricker, M. (2011). Epistemic injustice: Power and the ethics of knowing . Oxford University Press. ↵
• Cohn, N. & Quealy, K. (2020, June 10). How public opinion has moved on Black Lives Matter. The New York Times . Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/10/upshot/black-lives-matter-attitudes.html ↵
• Bautista, M., Bertrand, M., Morrell, E., Scorza, D. A., & Matthews, C. (2013). Participatory action research and city youth: Methodological insights from the Council of Youth Research.  Teachers College Record ,  115 (10), 1-23. ↵
• Constance-Huggins, M., Davis, A., & Yang, J. (2020). Race Still Matters: The Relationship Between Racial and Poverty Attitudes Among Social Work Students.  Advances in Social Work ,  20 (1), 132-151. ↵
• Crotty, M. (1998). The foundations of social research: Meaning and perspective in the research process . London: SAGE.; Guba E., & Lincoln, Y., (1994). Competing paradigms in qualitative research (pp. 105-118). In Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y (eds.) Handbook on qualitative research . Thousand Oaks, Ca: Sage.; Heron, J. & Reason, P. (1997). A participatory inquiry paradigm. Qualitative Inquiry. 3(3), 274-294. ↵
• Kuhn, T. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions . Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ↵
• Fleuridas, C., & Krafcik, D. (2019). Beyond four forces: The evolution of psychotherapy. Sage Open ,  9 (1), 2158244018824492. ↵
• Shneider, A. M. (2009). Four stages of a scientific discipline; four types of scientist. Trends in Biochemical Sciences 34 (5), 217-233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibs.2009.02.00 ↵
• Burrell, G. & Morgan, G. (1979). Sociological paradigms and organizational analysis . Routledge. Guba, E. (ed.) (1990). The paradigm dialog . SAGE. ↵
• Routledge. Guba, E. (ed.) (1990). The paradigm dialog . SAGE. ↵
• Burrell, G. & Morgan, G. (1979). Sociological paradigms and organizational analysis . Here is a summary of Burrell & Morgan from Babson College , and our classification collapses radical humanism and radical structuralism into the critical paradigm, following Guba and Lincoln's three-paradigm framework. We feel this approach is more parsimonious and easier for students to understand on an introductory level. ↵
• Kivuna, C. & Kuyini, A. B. (2017). Understanding and applying research paradigms in educational contexts. International Journal of Higher Education, 6 (5), 26-41. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1154775 ↵
• Kincheloe, J. L. & Tobin, K. (2009). The much exaggerated death of positivism. Cultural studies of science education , 4, 513-528. ↵
• For more about how the meanings of hand gestures vary by region, you might read the following blog entry: Wong, W. (2007). The top 10 hand gestures you’d better get right . Retrieved from: http://www.languagetrainers.co.uk/blog/2007/09/24/top-10-hand-gestures ↵
• Rosario, M., Schrimshaw, E. W., Hunter, J., & Levy-Warren, A. (2009). The coming-out process of young lesbian and bisexual women: Are there butch/femme differences in sexual identity development?. Archives of sexual behavior ,  38 (1), 34-49. ↵
• Calhoun, C., Gerteis, J., Moody, J., Pfaff, S., & Virk, I. (Eds.). (2007). Classical sociological theory  (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell. ↵
• Fraser, N. (1989).  Unruly practices: Power, discourse, and gender in contemporary social theory . Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. ↵
• Here are links to two HBSE open textbooks, if you are unfamiliar with social work theories and would like more background. https://uark.pressbooks.pub/hbse1/ and https://uark.pressbooks.pub/humanbehaviorandthesocialenvironment2/ ↵
• Box, G. E. P.. (1976). Science and statistics. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 71 (356), 791. ↵
• Heineman-Pieper, J., Tyson, K., & Pieper, M. H. (2002). Doing good science without sacrificing good values: Why the heuristic paradigm is the best choice for social work.  Families in Society ,  83 (1), 15-28. ↵
• Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). The general causality orientations scale: Self-determination in personality. Journal of research in personality ,  19 (2), 109-134. ↵
• Abery, B., & Stancliffe, R. (1996). The ecology of self-determination. in Self-determination across the life span: Independence and choice for people with disabilities ( pp. 111-145.) Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company ↵
• Payne, M. (2014).  Modern social work theory . Oxford University Press. ↵
• Hutchison, E. D. (2014). Dimensions of human behavior: Person and environment . Sage Publications. ↵
• DeCoster, S., Estes, S. B., & Mueller, C. W. (1999). Routine activities and sexual harassment in the workplace.  Work and  Occupations, 26 , 21–49. ↵
• Morgan, P. A. (1999). Risking relationships: Understanding the litigation choices of sexually harassed women. The Law and Society Review, 33 , 201–226. ↵
• MacKinnon, C. (1979). Sexual harassment of working women: A case of sex discrimination . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ↵
• An, S., Yoo, J., & Nackerud, L. G. (2015). Using game theory to understand screening for domestic violence under the TANF family violence option.  Advances in Social Work ,  16 (2), 338-357. ↵
• Pellebon, D. A. (2007). An analysis of Afrocentricity as theory for social work practice.  Advances in Social Work ,  8 (1), 169-183. ↵
• Jacobs, L. A., Kim, M. E., Whitfield, D. L., Gartner, R. E., Panichelli, M., Kattari, S. K., ... & Mountz, S. E. (2021). Defund the police: Moving towards an anti-carceral social work.  Journal of Progressive Human Services ,  32 (1), 37-62. ↵
• Jabareen, Y. (2009). Building a conceptual framework: philosophy, definitions, and procedure. International journal of qualitative methods ,  8 (4), 49-62. ↵
• Jabareen distinguishes between theoretical and conceptual frameworks. We agree with this distinction, but feel that this additional detail is not needed here. ↵
• Tan, C. (2016). Investigator bias and theory-ladenness in cross-cultural research: Insights from Wittgenstein. Current Issues in Comparative Education ,  18 (1), 83-95. ↵

a single truth, observed without bias, that is universally applicable

one truth among many, bound within a social and cultural context

assumptions about what is real and true

assumptions about how we come to know what is real and true

quantitative methods examine numerical data to precisely describe and predict elements of the social world

qualitative methods interpret language and behavior to understand the world from the perspectives of other people

when someone is treated unfairly in their capacity to know something or describe their experience of the world

assumptions about the role of values in research

a set of common philosophical (ontological, epistemological, and axiological) assumptions that inform research

a set of concepts and relationships scientists use to explain the social world

a paradigm guided by the principles of objectivity, knowability, and deductive logic

a paradigm based on the idea that social context and interaction frame our realities

a paradigm in social science research focused on power, inequality, and social change

a research paradigm that suspends questions of philosophical ‘truth’ and focuses more on how different philosophies, theories, and methods can be used strategically to resolve a problem or question within the researcher's unique context

a network of linked concepts that together provide a comprehensive understanding of a phenomenon

Graduate research methods in social work by Matthew DeCarlo, Cory Cummings, Kate Agnelli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Chapter 1. Introduction

“Science is in danger, and for that reason it is becoming dangerous” -Pierre Bourdieu, Science of Science and Reflexivity

Why an Open Access Textbook on Qualitative Research Methods?

I have been teaching qualitative research methods to both undergraduates and graduate students for many years.  Although there are some excellent textbooks out there, they are often costly, and none of them, to my mind, properly introduces qualitative research methods to the beginning student (whether undergraduate or graduate student).  In contrast, this open-access textbook is designed as a (free) true introduction to the subject, with helpful, practical pointers on how to conduct research and how to access more advanced instruction.  

Textbooks are typically arranged in one of two ways: (1) by technique (each chapter covers one method used in qualitative research); or (2) by process (chapters advance from research design through publication).  But both of these approaches are necessary for the beginner student.  This textbook will have sections dedicated to the process as well as the techniques of qualitative research.  This is a true “comprehensive” book for the beginning student.  In addition to covering techniques of data collection and data analysis, it provides a road map of how to get started and how to keep going and where to go for advanced instruction.  It covers aspects of research design and research communication as well as methods employed.  Along the way, it includes examples from many different disciplines in the social sciences.

The primary goal has been to create a useful, accessible, engaging textbook for use across many disciplines.  And, let’s face it.  Textbooks can be boring.  I hope readers find this to be a little different.  I have tried to write in a practical and forthright manner, with many lively examples and references to good and intellectually creative qualitative research.  Woven throughout the text are short textual asides (in colored textboxes) by professional (academic) qualitative researchers in various disciplines.  These short accounts by practitioners should help inspire students.  So, let’s begin!

What is Research?

When we use the word research , what exactly do we mean by that?  This is one of those words that everyone thinks they understand, but it is worth beginning this textbook with a short explanation.  We use the term to refer to “empirical research,” which is actually a historically specific approach to understanding the world around us.  Think about how you know things about the world. [1] You might know your mother loves you because she’s told you she does.  Or because that is what “mothers” do by tradition.  Or you might know because you’ve looked for evidence that she does, like taking care of you when you are sick or reading to you in bed or working two jobs so you can have the things you need to do OK in life.  Maybe it seems churlish to look for evidence; you just take it “on faith” that you are loved.

Only one of the above comes close to what we mean by research.  Empirical research is research (investigation) based on evidence.  Conclusions can then be drawn from observable data.  This observable data can also be “tested” or checked.  If the data cannot be tested, that is a good indication that we are not doing research.  Note that we can never “prove” conclusively, through observable data, that our mothers love us.  We might have some “disconfirming evidence” (that time she didn’t show up to your graduation, for example) that could push you to question an original hypothesis , but no amount of “confirming evidence” will ever allow us to say with 100% certainty, “my mother loves me.”  Faith and tradition and authority work differently.  Our knowledge can be 100% certain using each of those alternative methods of knowledge, but our certainty in those cases will not be based on facts or evidence.

For many periods of history, those in power have been nervous about “science” because it uses evidence and facts as the primary source of understanding the world, and facts can be at odds with what power or authority or tradition want you to believe.  That is why I say that scientific empirical research is a historically specific approach to understand the world.  You are in college or university now partly to learn how to engage in this historically specific approach.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe, there was a newfound respect for empirical research, some of which was seriously challenging to the established church.  Using observations and testing them, scientists found that the earth was not at the center of the universe, for example, but rather that it was but one planet of many which circled the sun. [2]   For the next two centuries, the science of astronomy, physics, biology, and chemistry emerged and became disciplines taught in universities.  All used the scientific method of observation and testing to advance knowledge.  Knowledge about people , however, and social institutions, however, was still left to faith, tradition, and authority.  Historians and philosophers and poets wrote about the human condition, but none of them used research to do so. [3]

It was not until the nineteenth century that “social science” really emerged, using the scientific method (empirical observation) to understand people and social institutions.  New fields of sociology, economics, political science, and anthropology emerged.  The first sociologists, people like Auguste Comte and Karl Marx, sought specifically to apply the scientific method of research to understand society, Engels famously claiming that Marx had done for the social world what Darwin did for the natural world, tracings its laws of development.  Today we tend to take for granted the naturalness of science here, but it is actually a pretty recent and radical development.

To return to the question, “does your mother love you?”  Well, this is actually not really how a researcher would frame the question, as it is too specific to your case.  It doesn’t tell us much about the world at large, even if it does tell us something about you and your relationship with your mother.  A social science researcher might ask, “do mothers love their children?”  Or maybe they would be more interested in how this loving relationship might change over time (e.g., “do mothers love their children more now than they did in the 18th century when so many children died before reaching adulthood?”) or perhaps they might be interested in measuring quality of love across cultures or time periods, or even establishing “what love looks like” using the mother/child relationship as a site of exploration.  All of these make good research questions because we can use observable data to answer them.

What is Qualitative Research?

“All we know is how to learn. How to study, how to listen, how to talk, how to tell.  If we don’t tell the world, we don’t know the world.  We’re lost in it, we die.” -Ursula LeGuin, The Telling

At its simplest, qualitative research is research about the social world that does not use numbers in its analyses.  All those who fear statistics can breathe a sigh of relief – there are no mathematical formulae or regression models in this book! But this definition is less about what qualitative research can be and more about what it is not.  To be honest, any simple statement will fail to capture the power and depth of qualitative research.  One way of contrasting qualitative research to quantitative research is to note that the focus of qualitative research is less about explaining and predicting relationships between variables and more about understanding the social world.  To use our mother love example, the question about “what love looks like” is a good question for the qualitative researcher while all questions measuring love or comparing incidences of love (both of which require measurement) are good questions for quantitative researchers. Patton writes,

Qualitative data describe.  They take us, as readers, into the time and place of the observation so that we know what it was like to have been there.  They capture and communicate someone else’s experience of the world in his or her own words.  Qualitative data tell a story. ( Patton 2002:47 )

Qualitative researchers are asking different questions about the world than their quantitative colleagues.  Even when researchers are employed in “mixed methods” research ( both quantitative and qualitative), they are using different methods to address different questions of the study.  I do a lot of research about first-generation and working-college college students.  Where a quantitative researcher might ask, how many first-generation college students graduate from college within four years? Or does first-generation college status predict high student debt loads?  A qualitative researcher might ask, how does the college experience differ for first-generation college students?  What is it like to carry a lot of debt, and how does this impact the ability to complete college on time?  Both sets of questions are important, but they can only be answered using specific tools tailored to those questions.  For the former, you need large numbers to make adequate comparisons.  For the latter, you need to talk to people, find out what they are thinking and feeling, and try to inhabit their shoes for a little while so you can make sense of their experiences and beliefs.

Examples of Qualitative Research

You have probably seen examples of qualitative research before, but you might not have paid particular attention to how they were produced or realized that the accounts you were reading were the result of hours, months, even years of research “in the field.”  A good qualitative researcher will present the product of their hours of work in such a way that it seems natural, even obvious, to the reader.  Because we are trying to convey what it is like answers, qualitative research is often presented as stories – stories about how people live their lives, go to work, raise their children, interact with one another.  In some ways, this can seem like reading particularly insightful novels.  But, unlike novels, there are very specific rules and guidelines that qualitative researchers follow to ensure that the “story” they are telling is accurate , a truthful rendition of what life is like for the people being studied.  Most of this textbook will be spent conveying those rules and guidelines.  Let’s take a look, first, however, at three examples of what the end product looks like.  I have chosen these three examples to showcase very different approaches to qualitative research, and I will return to these five examples throughout the book.  They were all published as whole books (not chapters or articles), and they are worth the long read, if you have the time.  I will also provide some information on how these books came to be and the length of time it takes to get them into book version.  It is important you know about this process, and the rest of this textbook will help explain why it takes so long to conduct good qualitative research!

Example 1 : The End Game (ethnography + interviews)

Corey Abramson is a sociologist who teaches at the University of Arizona.   In 2015 he published The End Game: How Inequality Shapes our Final Years ( 2015 ). This book was based on the research he did for his dissertation at the University of California-Berkeley in 2012.  Actually, the dissertation was completed in 2012 but the work that was produced that took several years.  The dissertation was entitled, “This is How We Live, This is How We Die: Social Stratification, Aging, and Health in Urban America” ( 2012 ).  You can see how the book version, which was written for a more general audience, has a more engaging sound to it, but that the dissertation version, which is what academic faculty read and evaluate, has a more descriptive title.  You can read the title and know that this is a study about aging and health and that the focus is going to be inequality and that the context (place) is going to be “urban America.”  It’s a study about “how” people do something – in this case, how they deal with aging and death.  This is the very first sentence of the dissertation, “From our first breath in the hospital to the day we die, we live in a society characterized by unequal opportunities for maintaining health and taking care of ourselves when ill.  These disparities reflect persistent racial, socio-economic, and gender-based inequalities and contribute to their persistence over time” ( 1 ).  What follows is a truthful account of how that is so.

Cory Abramson spent three years conducting his research in four different urban neighborhoods.  We call the type of research he conducted “comparative ethnographic” because he designed his study to compare groups of seniors as they went about their everyday business.  It’s comparative because he is comparing different groups (based on race, class, gender) and ethnographic because he is studying the culture/way of life of a group. [4]   He had an educated guess, rooted in what previous research had shown and what social theory would suggest, that people’s experiences of aging differ by race, class, and gender.  So, he set up a research design that would allow him to observe differences.  He chose two primarily middle-class (one was racially diverse and the other was predominantly White) and two primarily poor neighborhoods (one was racially diverse and the other was predominantly African American).  He hung out in senior centers and other places seniors congregated, watched them as they took the bus to get prescriptions filled, sat in doctor’s offices with them, and listened to their conversations with each other.  He also conducted more formal conversations, what we call in-depth interviews, with sixty seniors from each of the four neighborhoods.  As with a lot of fieldwork , as he got closer to the people involved, he both expanded and deepened his reach –

By the end of the project, I expanded my pool of general observations to include various settings frequented by seniors: apartment building common rooms, doctors’ offices, emergency rooms, pharmacies, senior centers, bars, parks, corner stores, shopping centers, pool halls, hair salons, coffee shops, and discount stores. Over the course of the three years of fieldwork, I observed hundreds of elders, and developed close relationships with a number of them. ( 2012:10 )

When Abramson rewrote the dissertation for a general audience and published his book in 2015, it got a lot of attention.  It is a beautifully written book and it provided insight into a common human experience that we surprisingly know very little about.  It won the Outstanding Publication Award by the American Sociological Association Section on Aging and the Life Course and was featured in the New York Times .  The book was about aging, and specifically how inequality shapes the aging process, but it was also about much more than that.  It helped show how inequality affects people’s everyday lives.  For example, by observing the difficulties the poor had in setting up appointments and getting to them using public transportation and then being made to wait to see a doctor, sometimes in standing-room-only situations, when they are unwell, and then being treated dismissively by hospital staff, Abramson allowed readers to feel the material reality of being poor in the US.  Comparing these examples with seniors with adequate supplemental insurance who have the resources to hire car services or have others assist them in arranging care when they need it, jolts the reader to understand and appreciate the difference money makes in the lives and circumstances of us all, and in a way that is different than simply reading a statistic (“80% of the poor do not keep regular doctor’s appointments”) does.  Qualitative research can reach into spaces and places that often go unexamined and then reports back to the rest of us what it is like in those spaces and places.

Example 2: Racing for Innocence (Interviews + Content Analysis + Fictional Stories)

Jennifer Pierce is a Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota.  Trained as a sociologist, she has written a number of books about gender, race, and power.  Her very first book, Gender Trials: Emotional Lives in Contemporary Law Firms, published in 1995, is a brilliant look at gender dynamics within two law firms.  Pierce was a participant observer, working as a paralegal, and she observed how female lawyers and female paralegals struggled to obtain parity with their male colleagues.

Fifteen years later, she reexamined the context of the law firm to include an examination of racial dynamics, particularly how elite white men working in these spaces created and maintained a culture that made it difficult for both female attorneys and attorneys of color to thrive. Her book, Racing for Innocence: Whiteness, Gender, and the Backlash Against Affirmative Action , published in 2012, is an interesting and creative blending of interviews with attorneys, content analyses of popular films during this period, and fictional accounts of racial discrimination and sexual harassment.  The law firm she chose to study had come under an affirmative action order and was in the process of implementing equitable policies and programs.  She wanted to understand how recipients of white privilege (the elite white male attorneys) come to deny the role they play in reproducing inequality.  Through interviews with attorneys who were present both before and during the affirmative action order, she creates a historical record of the “bad behavior” that necessitated new policies and procedures, but also, and more importantly , probed the participants ’ understanding of this behavior.  It should come as no surprise that most (but not all) of the white male attorneys saw little need for change, and that almost everyone else had accounts that were different if not sometimes downright harrowing.

I’ve used Pierce’s book in my qualitative research methods courses as an example of an interesting blend of techniques and presentation styles.  My students often have a very difficult time with the fictional accounts she includes.  But they serve an important communicative purpose here.  They are her attempts at presenting “both sides” to an objective reality – something happens (Pierce writes this something so it is very clear what it is), and the two participants to the thing that happened have very different understandings of what this means.  By including these stories, Pierce presents one of her key findings – people remember things differently and these different memories tend to support their own ideological positions.  I wonder what Pierce would have written had she studied the murder of George Floyd or the storming of the US Capitol on January 6 or any number of other historic events whose observers and participants record very different happenings.

This is not to say that qualitative researchers write fictional accounts.  In fact, the use of fiction in our work remains controversial.  When used, it must be clearly identified as a presentation device, as Pierce did.  I include Racing for Innocence here as an example of the multiple uses of methods and techniques and the way that these work together to produce better understandings by us, the readers, of what Pierce studied.  We readers come away with a better grasp of how and why advantaged people understate their own involvement in situations and structures that advantage them.  This is normal human behavior , in other words.  This case may have been about elite white men in law firms, but the general insights here can be transposed to other settings.  Indeed, Pierce argues that more research needs to be done about the role elites play in the reproduction of inequality in the workplace in general.

Example 3: Amplified Advantage (Mixed Methods: Survey Interviews + Focus Groups + Archives)

The final example comes from my own work with college students, particularly the ways in which class background affects the experience of college and outcomes for graduates.  I include it here as an example of mixed methods, and for the use of supplementary archival research.  I’ve done a lot of research over the years on first-generation, low-income, and working-class college students.  I am curious (and skeptical) about the possibility of social mobility today, particularly with the rising cost of college and growing inequality in general.  As one of the few people in my family to go to college, I didn’t grow up with a lot of examples of what college was like or how to make the most of it.  And when I entered graduate school, I realized with dismay that there were very few people like me there.  I worried about becoming too different from my family and friends back home.  And I wasn’t at all sure that I would ever be able to pay back the huge load of debt I was taking on.  And so I wrote my dissertation and first two books about working-class college students.  These books focused on experiences in college and the difficulties of navigating between family and school ( Hurst 2010a, 2012 ).  But even after all that research, I kept coming back to wondering if working-class students who made it through college had an equal chance at finding good jobs and happy lives,

What happens to students after college?  Do working-class students fare as well as their peers?  I knew from my own experience that barriers continued through graduate school and beyond, and that my debtload was higher than that of my peers, constraining some of the choices I made when I graduated.  To answer these questions, I designed a study of students attending small liberal arts colleges, the type of college that tried to equalize the experience of students by requiring all students to live on campus and offering small classes with lots of interaction with faculty.  These private colleges tend to have more money and resources so they can provide financial aid to low-income students.  They also attract some very wealthy students.  Because they enroll students across the class spectrum, I would be able to draw comparisons.  I ended up spending about four years collecting data, both a survey of more than 2000 students (which formed the basis for quantitative analyses) and qualitative data collection (interviews, focus groups, archival research, and participant observation).  This is what we call a “mixed methods” approach because we use both quantitative and qualitative data.  The survey gave me a large enough number of students that I could make comparisons of the how many kind, and to be able to say with some authority that there were in fact significant differences in experience and outcome by class (e.g., wealthier students earned more money and had little debt; working-class students often found jobs that were not in their chosen careers and were very affected by debt, upper-middle-class students were more likely to go to graduate school).  But the survey analyses could not explain why these differences existed.  For that, I needed to talk to people and ask them about their motivations and aspirations.  I needed to understand their perceptions of the world, and it is very hard to do this through a survey.

By interviewing students and recent graduates, I was able to discern particular patterns and pathways through college and beyond.  Specifically, I identified three versions of gameplay.  Upper-middle-class students, whose parents were themselves professionals (academics, lawyers, managers of non-profits), saw college as the first stage of their education and took classes and declared majors that would prepare them for graduate school.  They also spent a lot of time building their resumes, taking advantage of opportunities to help professors with their research, or study abroad.  This helped them gain admission to highly-ranked graduate schools and interesting jobs in the public sector.  In contrast, upper-class students, whose parents were wealthy and more likely to be engaged in business (as CEOs or other high-level directors), prioritized building social capital.  They did this by joining fraternities and sororities and playing club sports.  This helped them when they graduated as they called on friends and parents of friends to find them well-paying jobs.  Finally, low-income, first-generation, and working-class students were often adrift.  They took the classes that were recommended to them but without the knowledge of how to connect them to life beyond college.  They spent time working and studying rather than partying or building their resumes.  All three sets of students thought they were “doing college” the right way, the way that one was supposed to do college.   But these three versions of gameplay led to distinct outcomes that advantaged some students over others.  I titled my work “Amplified Advantage” to highlight this process.

These three examples, Cory Abramson’s The End Game , Jennifer Peirce’s Racing for Innocence, and my own Amplified Advantage, demonstrate the range of approaches and tools available to the qualitative researcher.  They also help explain why qualitative research is so important.  Numbers can tell us some things about the world, but they cannot get at the hearts and minds, motivations and beliefs of the people who make up the social worlds we inhabit.  For that, we need tools that allow us to listen and make sense of what people tell us and show us.  That is what good qualitative research offers us.

How Is This Book Organized?

This textbook is organized as a comprehensive introduction to the use of qualitative research methods.  The first half covers general topics (e.g., approaches to qualitative research, ethics) and research design (necessary steps for building a successful qualitative research study).  The second half reviews various data collection and data analysis techniques.  Of course, building a successful qualitative research study requires some knowledge of data collection and data analysis so the chapters in the first half and the chapters in the second half should be read in conversation with each other.  That said, each chapter can be read on its own for assistance with a particular narrow topic.  In addition to the chapters, a helpful glossary can be found in the back of the book.  Rummage around in the text as needed.

Chapter Descriptions

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the Research Design Process.  How does one begin a study? What is an appropriate research question?  How is the study to be done – with what methods ?  Involving what people and sites?  Although qualitative research studies can and often do change and develop over the course of data collection, it is important to have a good idea of what the aims and goals of your study are at the outset and a good plan of how to achieve those aims and goals.  Chapter 2 provides a road map of the process.

Chapter 3 describes and explains various ways of knowing the (social) world.  What is it possible for us to know about how other people think or why they behave the way they do?  What does it mean to say something is a “fact” or that it is “well-known” and understood?  Qualitative researchers are particularly interested in these questions because of the types of research questions we are interested in answering (the how questions rather than the how many questions of quantitative research).  Qualitative researchers have adopted various epistemological approaches.  Chapter 3 will explore these approaches, highlighting interpretivist approaches that acknowledge the subjective aspect of reality – in other words, reality and knowledge are not objective but rather influenced by (interpreted through) people.

Chapter 4 focuses on the practical matter of developing a research question and finding the right approach to data collection.  In any given study (think of Cory Abramson’s study of aging, for example), there may be years of collected data, thousands of observations , hundreds of pages of notes to read and review and make sense of.  If all you had was a general interest area (“aging”), it would be very difficult, nearly impossible, to make sense of all of that data.  The research question provides a helpful lens to refine and clarify (and simplify) everything you find and collect.  For that reason, it is important to pull out that lens (articulate the research question) before you get started.  In the case of the aging study, Cory Abramson was interested in how inequalities affected understandings and responses to aging.  It is for this reason he designed a study that would allow him to compare different groups of seniors (some middle-class, some poor).  Inevitably, he saw much more in the three years in the field than what made it into his book (or dissertation), but he was able to narrow down the complexity of the social world to provide us with this rich account linked to the original research question.  Developing a good research question is thus crucial to effective design and a successful outcome.  Chapter 4 will provide pointers on how to do this.  Chapter 4 also provides an overview of general approaches taken to doing qualitative research and various “traditions of inquiry.”

Chapter 5 explores sampling .  After you have developed a research question and have a general idea of how you will collect data (Observations?  Interviews?), how do you go about actually finding people and sites to study?  Although there is no “correct number” of people to interview , the sample should follow the research question and research design.  Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research involves nonprobability sampling.  Chapter 5 explains why this is so and what qualities instead make a good sample for qualitative research.

Chapter 6 addresses the importance of reflexivity in qualitative research.  Related to epistemological issues of how we know anything about the social world, qualitative researchers understand that we the researchers can never be truly neutral or outside the study we are conducting.  As observers, we see things that make sense to us and may entirely miss what is either too obvious to note or too different to comprehend.  As interviewers, as much as we would like to ask questions neutrally and remain in the background, interviews are a form of conversation, and the persons we interview are responding to us .  Therefore, it is important to reflect upon our social positions and the knowledges and expectations we bring to our work and to work through any blind spots that we may have.  Chapter 6 provides some examples of reflexivity in practice and exercises for thinking through one’s own biases.

Chapter 7 is a very important chapter and should not be overlooked.  As a practical matter, it should also be read closely with chapters 6 and 8.  Because qualitative researchers deal with people and the social world, it is imperative they develop and adhere to a strong ethical code for conducting research in a way that does not harm.  There are legal requirements and guidelines for doing so (see chapter 8), but these requirements should not be considered synonymous with the ethical code required of us.   Each researcher must constantly interrogate every aspect of their research, from research question to design to sample through analysis and presentation, to ensure that a minimum of harm (ideally, zero harm) is caused.  Because each research project is unique, the standards of care for each study are unique.  Part of being a professional researcher is carrying this code in one’s heart, being constantly attentive to what is required under particular circumstances.  Chapter 7 provides various research scenarios and asks readers to weigh in on the suitability and appropriateness of the research.  If done in a class setting, it will become obvious fairly quickly that there are often no absolutely correct answers, as different people find different aspects of the scenarios of greatest importance.  Minimizing the harm in one area may require possible harm in another.  Being attentive to all the ethical aspects of one’s research and making the best judgments one can, clearly and consciously, is an integral part of being a good researcher.

Chapter 8 , best to be read in conjunction with chapter 7, explains the role and importance of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) .  Under federal guidelines, an IRB is an appropriately constituted group that has been formally designated to review and monitor research involving human subjects .  Every institution that receives funding from the federal government has an IRB.  IRBs have the authority to approve, require modifications to (to secure approval), or disapprove research.  This group review serves an important role in the protection of the rights and welfare of human research subjects.  Chapter 8 reviews the history of IRBs and the work they do but also argues that IRBs’ review of qualitative research is often both over-inclusive and under-inclusive.  Some aspects of qualitative research are not well understood by IRBs, given that they were developed to prevent abuses in biomedical research.  Thus, it is important not to rely on IRBs to identify all the potential ethical issues that emerge in our research (see chapter 7).

Chapter 9 provides help for getting started on formulating a research question based on gaps in the pre-existing literature.  Research is conducted as part of a community, even if particular studies are done by single individuals (or small teams).  What any of us finds and reports back becomes part of a much larger body of knowledge.  Thus, it is important that we look at the larger body of knowledge before we actually start our bit to see how we can best contribute.  When I first began interviewing working-class college students, there was only one other similar study I could find, and it hadn’t been published (it was a dissertation of students from poor backgrounds).  But there had been a lot published by professors who had grown up working class and made it through college despite the odds.  These accounts by “working-class academics” became an important inspiration for my study and helped me frame the questions I asked the students I interviewed.  Chapter 9 will provide some pointers on how to search for relevant literature and how to use this to refine your research question.

Chapter 10 serves as a bridge between the two parts of the textbook, by introducing techniques of data collection.  Qualitative research is often characterized by the form of data collection – for example, an ethnographic study is one that employs primarily observational data collection for the purpose of documenting and presenting a particular culture or ethnos.  Techniques can be effectively combined, depending on the research question and the aims and goals of the study.   Chapter 10 provides a general overview of all the various techniques and how they can be combined.

The second part of the textbook moves into the doing part of qualitative research once the research question has been articulated and the study designed.  Chapters 11 through 17 cover various data collection techniques and approaches.  Chapters 18 and 19 provide a very simple overview of basic data analysis.  Chapter 20 covers communication of the data to various audiences, and in various formats.

Chapter 11 begins our overview of data collection techniques with a focus on interviewing , the true heart of qualitative research.  This technique can serve as the primary and exclusive form of data collection, or it can be used to supplement other forms (observation, archival).  An interview is distinct from a survey, where questions are asked in a specific order and often with a range of predetermined responses available.  Interviews can be conversational and unstructured or, more conventionally, semistructured , where a general set of interview questions “guides” the conversation.  Chapter 11 covers the basics of interviews: how to create interview guides, how many people to interview, where to conduct the interview, what to watch out for (how to prepare against things going wrong), and how to get the most out of your interviews.

Chapter 12 covers an important variant of interviewing, the focus group.  Focus groups are semistructured interviews with a group of people moderated by a facilitator (the researcher or researcher’s assistant).  Focus groups explicitly use group interaction to assist in the data collection.  They are best used to collect data on a specific topic that is non-personal and shared among the group.  For example, asking a group of college students about a common experience such as taking classes by remote delivery during the pandemic year of 2020.  Chapter 12 covers the basics of focus groups: when to use them, how to create interview guides for them, and how to run them effectively.

Chapter 13 moves away from interviewing to the second major form of data collection unique to qualitative researchers – observation .  Qualitative research that employs observation can best be understood as falling on a continuum of “fly on the wall” observation (e.g., observing how strangers interact in a doctor’s waiting room) to “participant” observation, where the researcher is also an active participant of the activity being observed.  For example, an activist in the Black Lives Matter movement might want to study the movement, using her inside position to gain access to observe key meetings and interactions.  Chapter  13 covers the basics of participant observation studies: advantages and disadvantages, gaining access, ethical concerns related to insider/outsider status and entanglement, and recording techniques.

Chapter 14 takes a closer look at “deep ethnography” – immersion in the field of a particularly long duration for the purpose of gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of a particular culture or social world.  Clifford Geertz called this “deep hanging out.”  Whereas participant observation is often combined with semistructured interview techniques, deep ethnography’s commitment to “living the life” or experiencing the situation as it really is demands more conversational and natural interactions with people.  These interactions and conversations may take place over months or even years.  As can be expected, there are some costs to this technique, as well as some very large rewards when done competently.  Chapter 14 provides some examples of deep ethnographies that will inspire some beginning researchers and intimidate others.

Chapter 15 moves in the opposite direction of deep ethnography, a technique that is the least positivist of all those discussed here, to mixed methods , a set of techniques that is arguably the most positivist .  A mixed methods approach combines both qualitative data collection and quantitative data collection, commonly by combining a survey that is analyzed statistically (e.g., cross-tabs or regression analyses of large number probability samples) with semi-structured interviews.  Although it is somewhat unconventional to discuss mixed methods in textbooks on qualitative research, I think it is important to recognize this often-employed approach here.  There are several advantages and some disadvantages to taking this route.  Chapter 16 will describe those advantages and disadvantages and provide some particular guidance on how to design a mixed methods study for maximum effectiveness.

Chapter 16 covers data collection that does not involve live human subjects at all – archival and historical research (chapter 17 will also cover data that does not involve interacting with human subjects).  Sometimes people are unavailable to us, either because they do not wish to be interviewed or observed (as is the case with many “elites”) or because they are too far away, in both place and time.  Fortunately, humans leave many traces and we can often answer questions we have by examining those traces.  Special collections and archives can be goldmines for social science research.  This chapter will explain how to access these places, for what purposes, and how to begin to make sense of what you find.

Chapter 17 covers another data collection area that does not involve face-to-face interaction with humans: content analysis .  Although content analysis may be understood more properly as a data analysis technique, the term is often used for the entire approach, which will be the case here.  Content analysis involves interpreting meaning from a body of text.  This body of text might be something found in historical records (see chapter 16) or something collected by the researcher, as in the case of comment posts on a popular blog post.  I once used the stories told by student loan debtors on the website studentloanjustice.org as the content I analyzed.  Content analysis is particularly useful when attempting to define and understand prevalent stories or communication about a topic of interest.  In other words, when we are less interested in what particular people (our defined sample) are doing or believing and more interested in what general narratives exist about a particular topic or issue.  This chapter will explore different approaches to content analysis and provide helpful tips on how to collect data, how to turn that data into codes for analysis, and how to go about presenting what is found through analysis.

Where chapter 17 has pushed us towards data analysis, chapters 18 and 19 are all about what to do with the data collected, whether that data be in the form of interview transcripts or fieldnotes from observations.  Chapter 18 introduces the basics of coding , the iterative process of assigning meaning to the data in order to both simplify and identify patterns.  What is a code and how does it work?  What are the different ways of coding data, and when should you use them?  What is a codebook, and why do you need one?  What does the process of data analysis look like?

Chapter 19 goes further into detail on codes and how to use them, particularly the later stages of coding in which our codes are refined, simplified, combined, and organized.  These later rounds of coding are essential to getting the most out of the data we’ve collected.  As students are often overwhelmed with the amount of data (a corpus of interview transcripts typically runs into the hundreds of pages; fieldnotes can easily top that), this chapter will also address time management and provide suggestions for dealing with chaos and reminders that feeling overwhelmed at the analysis stage is part of the process.  By the end of the chapter, you should understand how “findings” are actually found.

The book concludes with a chapter dedicated to the effective presentation of data results.  Chapter 20 covers the many ways that researchers communicate their studies to various audiences (academic, personal, political), what elements must be included in these various publications, and the hallmarks of excellent qualitative research that various audiences will be expecting.  Because qualitative researchers are motivated by understanding and conveying meaning , effective communication is not only an essential skill but a fundamental facet of the entire research project.  Ethnographers must be able to convey a certain sense of verisimilitude , the appearance of true reality.  Those employing interviews must faithfully depict the key meanings of the people they interviewed in a way that rings true to those people, even if the end result surprises them.  And all researchers must strive for clarity in their publications so that various audiences can understand what was found and why it is important.

The book concludes with a short chapter ( chapter 21 ) discussing the value of qualitative research. At the very end of this book, you will find a glossary of terms. I recommend you make frequent use of the glossary and add to each entry as you find examples. Although the entries are meant to be simple and clear, you may also want to paraphrase the definition—make it “make sense” to you, in other words. In addition to the standard reference list (all works cited here), you will find various recommendations for further reading at the end of many chapters. Some of these recommendations will be examples of excellent qualitative research, indicated with an asterisk (*) at the end of the entry. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. A good example of qualitative research can teach you more about conducting research than any textbook can (this one included). I highly recommend you select one to three examples from these lists and read them along with the textbook.

A final note on the choice of examples – you will note that many of the examples used in the text come from research on college students.  This is for two reasons.  First, as most of my research falls in this area, I am most familiar with this literature and have contacts with those who do research here and can call upon them to share their stories with you.  Second, and more importantly, my hope is that this textbook reaches a wide audience of beginning researchers who study widely and deeply across the range of what can be known about the social world (from marine resources management to public policy to nursing to political science to sexuality studies and beyond).  It is sometimes difficult to find examples that speak to all those research interests, however. A focus on college students is something that all readers can understand and, hopefully, appreciate, as we are all now or have been at some point a college student.

Recommended Reading: Other Qualitative Research Textbooks

I’ve included a brief list of some of my favorite qualitative research textbooks and guidebooks if you need more than what you will find in this introductory text.  For each, I’ve also indicated if these are for “beginning” or “advanced” (graduate-level) readers.  Many of these books have several editions that do not significantly vary; the edition recommended is merely the edition I have used in teaching and to whose page numbers any specific references made in the text agree.

Barbour, Rosaline. 2014. Introducing Qualitative Research: A Student’s Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  A good introduction to qualitative research, with abundant examples (often from the discipline of health care) and clear definitions.  Includes quick summaries at the ends of each chapter.  However, some US students might find the British context distracting and can be a bit advanced in some places.  Beginning .

Bloomberg, Linda Dale, and Marie F. Volpe. 2012. Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  Specifically designed to guide graduate students through the research process. Advanced .

Creswell, John W., and Cheryl Poth. 2018 Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Traditions .  4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  This is a classic and one of the go-to books I used myself as a graduate student.  One of the best things about this text is its clear presentation of five distinct traditions in qualitative research.  Despite the title, this reasonably sized book is about more than research design, including both data analysis and how to write about qualitative research.  Advanced .

Lareau, Annette. 2021. Listening to People: A Practical Guide to Interviewing, Participant Observation, Data Analysis, and Writing It All Up .  Chicago: University of Chicago Press. A readable and personal account of conducting qualitative research by an eminent sociologist, with a heavy emphasis on the kinds of participant-observation research conducted by the author.  Despite its reader-friendliness, this is really a book targeted to graduate students learning the craft.  Advanced .

Lune, Howard, and Bruce L. Berg. 2018. 9th edition.  Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences.  Pearson . Although a good introduction to qualitative methods, the authors favor symbolic interactionist and dramaturgical approaches, which limits the appeal primarily to sociologists.  Beginning .

Marshall, Catherine, and Gretchen B. Rossman. 2016. 6th edition. Designing Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  Very readable and accessible guide to research design by two educational scholars.  Although the presentation is sometimes fairly dry, personal vignettes and illustrations enliven the text.  Beginning .

Maxwell, Joseph A. 2013. Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach .  3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. A short and accessible introduction to qualitative research design, particularly helpful for graduate students contemplating theses and dissertations. This has been a standard textbook in my graduate-level courses for years.  Advanced .

Patton, Michael Quinn. 2002. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  This is a comprehensive text that served as my “go-to” reference when I was a graduate student.  It is particularly helpful for those involved in program evaluation and other forms of evaluation studies and uses examples from a wide range of disciplines.  Advanced .

Rubin, Ashley T. 2021. Rocking Qualitative Social Science: An Irreverent Guide to Rigorous Research. Stanford : Stanford University Press.  A delightful and personal read.  Rubin uses rock climbing as an extended metaphor for learning how to conduct qualitative research.  A bit slanted toward ethnographic and archival methods of data collection, with frequent examples from her own studies in criminology. Beginning .

Weis, Lois, and Michelle Fine. 2000. Speed Bumps: A Student-Friendly Guide to Qualitative Research . New York: Teachers College Press.  Readable and accessibly written in a quasi-conversational style.  Particularly strong in its discussion of ethical issues throughout the qualitative research process.  Not comprehensive, however, and very much tied to ethnographic research.  Although designed for graduate students, this is a recommended read for students of all levels.  Beginning .

Patton’s Ten Suggestions for Doing Qualitative Research

The following ten suggestions were made by Michael Quinn Patton in his massive textbooks Qualitative Research and Evaluations Methods . This book is highly recommended for those of you who want more than an introduction to qualitative methods. It is the book I relied on heavily when I was a graduate student, although it is much easier to “dip into” when necessary than to read through as a whole. Patton is asked for “just one bit of advice” for a graduate student considering using qualitative research methods for their dissertation.  Here are his top ten responses, in short form, heavily paraphrased, and with additional comments and emphases from me:

• Make sure that a qualitative approach fits the research question. The following are the kinds of questions that call out for qualitative methods or where qualitative methods are particularly appropriate: questions about people’s experiences or how they make sense of those experiences; studying a person in their natural environment; researching a phenomenon so unknown that it would be impossible to study it with standardized instruments or other forms of quantitative data collection.
• Study qualitative research by going to the original sources for the design and analysis appropriate to the particular approach you want to take (e.g., read Glaser and Straus if you are using grounded theory )
• Find a dissertation adviser who understands or at least who will support your use of qualitative research methods. You are asking for trouble if your entire committee is populated by quantitative researchers, even if they are all very knowledgeable about the subject or focus of your study (maybe even more so if they are!)
• Really work on design. Doing qualitative research effectively takes a lot of planning.  Even if things are more flexible than in quantitative research, a good design is absolutely essential when starting out.
• Practice data collection techniques, particularly interviewing and observing. There is definitely a set of learned skills here!  Do not expect your first interview to be perfect.  You will continue to grow as a researcher the more interviews you conduct, and you will probably come to understand yourself a bit more in the process, too.  This is not easy, despite what others who don’t work with qualitative methods may assume (and tell you!)
• Have a plan for analysis before you begin data collection. This is often a requirement in IRB protocols , although you can get away with writing something fairly simple.  And even if you are taking an approach, such as grounded theory, that pushes you to remain fairly open-minded during the data collection process, you still want to know what you will be doing with all the data collected – creating a codebook? Writing analytical memos? Comparing cases?  Having a plan in hand will also help prevent you from collecting too much extraneous data.
• Be prepared to confront controversies both within the qualitative research community and between qualitative research and quantitative research. Don’t be naïve about this – qualitative research, particularly some approaches, will be derided by many more “positivist” researchers and audiences.  For example, is an “n” of 1 really sufficient?  Yes!  But not everyone will agree.
• Do not make the mistake of using qualitative research methods because someone told you it was easier, or because you are intimidated by the math required of statistical analyses. Qualitative research is difficult in its own way (and many would claim much more time-consuming than quantitative research).  Do it because you are convinced it is right for your goals, aims, and research questions.
• Find a good support network. This could be a research mentor, or it could be a group of friends or colleagues who are also using qualitative research, or it could be just someone who will listen to you work through all of the issues you will confront out in the field and during the writing process.  Even though qualitative research often involves human subjects, it can be pretty lonely.  A lot of times you will feel like you are working without a net.  You have to create one for yourself.  Take care of yourself.
• And, finally, in the words of Patton, “Prepare to be changed. Looking deeply at other people’s lives will force you to look deeply at yourself.”
• We will actually spend an entire chapter ( chapter 3 ) looking at this question in much more detail! ↵
• Note that this might have been news to Europeans at the time, but many other societies around the world had also come to this conclusion through observation.  There is often a tendency to equate “the scientific revolution” with the European world in which it took place, but this is somewhat misleading. ↵
• Historians are a special case here.  Historians have scrupulously and rigorously investigated the social world, but not for the purpose of understanding general laws about how things work, which is the point of scientific empirical research.  History is often referred to as an idiographic field of study, meaning that it studies things that happened or are happening in themselves and not for general observations or conclusions. ↵
• Don’t worry, we’ll spend more time later in this book unpacking the meaning of ethnography and other terms that are important here.  Note the available glossary ↵

An approach to research that is “multimethod in focus, involving an interpretative, naturalistic approach to its subject matter.  This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.  Qualitative research involves the studied use and collection of a variety of empirical materials – case study, personal experience, introspective, life story, interview, observational, historical, interactional, and visual texts – that describe routine and problematic moments and meanings in individuals’ lives." ( Denzin and Lincoln 2005:2 ). Contrast with quantitative research .

In contrast to methodology, methods are more simply the practices and tools used to collect and analyze data.  Examples of common methods in qualitative research are interviews , observations , and documentary analysis .  One’s methodology should connect to one’s choice of methods, of course, but they are distinguishable terms.  See also methodology .

A proposed explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation.  The positing of a hypothesis is often the first step in quantitative research but not in qualitative research.  Even when qualitative researchers offer possible explanations in advance of conducting research, they will tend to not use the word “hypothesis” as it conjures up the kind of positivist research they are not conducting.

The foundational question to be addressed by the research study.  This will form the anchor of the research design, collection, and analysis.  Note that in qualitative research, the research question may, and probably will, alter or develop during the course of the research.

An approach to research that collects and analyzes numerical data for the purpose of finding patterns and averages, making predictions, testing causal relationships, and generalizing results to wider populations.  Contrast with qualitative research .

Data collection that takes place in real-world settings, referred to as “the field;” a key component of much Grounded Theory and ethnographic research.  Patton ( 2002 ) calls fieldwork “the central activity of qualitative inquiry” where “‘going into the field’ means having direct and personal contact with people under study in their own environments – getting close to people and situations being studied to personally understand the realities of minutiae of daily life” (48).

The people who are the subjects of a qualitative study.  In interview-based studies, they may be the respondents to the interviewer; for purposes of IRBs, they are often referred to as the human subjects of the research.

The branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge.  For researchers, it is important to recognize and adopt one of the many distinguishing epistemological perspectives as part of our understanding of what questions research can address or fully answer.  See, e.g., constructivism , subjectivism, and  objectivism .

An approach that refutes the possibility of neutrality in social science research.  All research is “guided by a set of beliefs and feelings about the world and how it should be understood and studied” (Denzin and Lincoln 2005: 13).  In contrast to positivism , interpretivism recognizes the social constructedness of reality, and researchers adopting this approach focus on capturing interpretations and understandings people have about the world rather than “the world” as it is (which is a chimera).

The cluster of data-collection tools and techniques that involve observing interactions between people, the behaviors, and practices of individuals (sometimes in contrast to what they say about how they act and behave), and cultures in context.  Observational methods are the key tools employed by ethnographers and Grounded Theory .

Research based on data collected and analyzed by the research (in contrast to secondary “library” research).

The process of selecting people or other units of analysis to represent a larger population. In quantitative research, this representation is taken quite literally, as statistically representative.  In qualitative research, in contrast, sample selection is often made based on potential to generate insight about a particular topic or phenomenon.

A method of data collection in which the researcher asks the participant questions; the answers to these questions are often recorded and transcribed verbatim. There are many different kinds of interviews - see also semistructured interview , structured interview , and unstructured interview .

The specific group of individuals that you will collect data from.  Contrast population.

The practice of being conscious of and reflective upon one’s own social location and presence when conducting research.  Because qualitative research often requires interaction with live humans, failing to take into account how one’s presence and prior expectations and social location affect the data collected and how analyzed may limit the reliability of the findings.  This remains true even when dealing with historical archives and other content.  Who we are matters when asking questions about how people experience the world because we, too, are a part of that world.

The science and practice of right conduct; in research, it is also the delineation of moral obligations towards research participants, communities to which we belong, and communities in which we conduct our research.

An administrative body established to protect the rights and welfare of human research subjects recruited to participate in research activities conducted under the auspices of the institution with which it is affiliated. The IRB is charged with the responsibility of reviewing all research involving human participants. The IRB is concerned with protecting the welfare, rights, and privacy of human subjects. The IRB has the authority to approve, disapprove, monitor, and require modifications in all research activities that fall within its jurisdiction as specified by both the federal regulations and institutional policy.

Research, according to US federal guidelines, that involves “a living individual about whom an investigator (whether professional or student) conducting research:  (1) Obtains information or biospecimens through intervention or interaction with the individual, and uses, studies, or analyzes the information or biospecimens; or  (2) Obtains, uses, studies, analyzes, or generates identifiable private information or identifiable biospecimens.”

One of the primary methodological traditions of inquiry in qualitative research, ethnography is the study of a group or group culture, largely through observational fieldwork supplemented by interviews. It is a form of fieldwork that may include participant-observation data collection. See chapter 14 for a discussion of deep ethnography. 

A form of interview that follows a standard guide of questions asked, although the order of the questions may change to match the particular needs of each individual interview subject, and probing “follow-up” questions are often added during the course of the interview.  The semi-structured interview is the primary form of interviewing used by qualitative researchers in the social sciences.  It is sometimes referred to as an “in-depth” interview.  See also interview and  interview guide .

A method of observational data collection taking place in a natural setting; a form of fieldwork .  The term encompasses a continuum of relative participation by the researcher (from full participant to “fly-on-the-wall” observer).  This is also sometimes referred to as ethnography , although the latter is characterized by a greater focus on the culture under observation.

A research design that employs both quantitative and qualitative methods, as in the case of a survey supplemented by interviews.

An epistemological perspective that posits the existence of reality through sensory experience similar to empiricism but goes further in denying any non-sensory basis of thought or consciousness.  In the social sciences, the term has roots in the proto-sociologist August Comte, who believed he could discern “laws” of society similar to the laws of natural science (e.g., gravity).  The term has come to mean the kinds of measurable and verifiable science conducted by quantitative researchers and is thus used pejoratively by some qualitative researchers interested in interpretation, consciousness, and human understanding.  Calling someone a “positivist” is often intended as an insult.  See also empiricism and objectivism.

A place or collection containing records, documents, or other materials of historical interest; most universities have an archive of material related to the university’s history, as well as other “special collections” that may be of interest to members of the community.

A method of both data collection and data analysis in which a given content (textual, visual, graphic) is examined systematically and rigorously to identify meanings, themes, patterns and assumptions.  Qualitative content analysis (QCA) is concerned with gathering and interpreting an existing body of material.    

A word or short phrase that symbolically assigns a summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data (Saldaña 2021:5).

Usually a verbatim written record of an interview or focus group discussion.

The primary form of data for fieldwork , participant observation , and ethnography .  These notes, taken by the researcher either during the course of fieldwork or at day’s end, should include as many details as possible on what was observed and what was said.  They should include clear identifiers of date, time, setting, and names (or identifying characteristics) of participants.

The process of labeling and organizing qualitative data to identify different themes and the relationships between them; a way of simplifying data to allow better management and retrieval of key themes and illustrative passages.  See coding frame and  codebook.

A methodological tradition of inquiry and approach to analyzing qualitative data in which theories emerge from a rigorous and systematic process of induction.  This approach was pioneered by the sociologists Glaser and Strauss (1967).  The elements of theory generated from comparative analysis of data are, first, conceptual categories and their properties and, second, hypotheses or generalized relations among the categories and their properties – “The constant comparing of many groups draws the [researcher’s] attention to their many similarities and differences.  Considering these leads [the researcher] to generate abstract categories and their properties, which, since they emerge from the data, will clearly be important to a theory explaining the kind of behavior under observation.” (36).

A detailed description of any proposed research that involves human subjects for review by IRB.  The protocol serves as the recipe for the conduct of the research activity.  It includes the scientific rationale to justify the conduct of the study, the information necessary to conduct the study, the plan for managing and analyzing the data, and a discussion of the research ethical issues relevant to the research.  Protocols for qualitative research often include interview guides, all documents related to recruitment, informed consent forms, very clear guidelines on the safekeeping of materials collected, and plans for de-identifying transcripts or other data that include personal identifying information.

Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods Copyright © 2023 by Allison Hurst is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Chapter 7: Credible Research Sources

Understanding research sources, strategies for gathering reliable information.

Once you have read the assignment, understood the instructions, and chosen your research topic, and devised a research question, you are finally ready to begin the in-depth research!  As you read this section, you will learn ways to locate sources efficiently, so you have enough time to read the sources, take notes, and think about how to use the information.  One main goal for this course is to teach you to work smarter and more efficiently.

Using Primary and Secondary Sources

Writers classify research resources in two categories: primary sources and secondary sources.

Primary sources are direct, firsthand sources of information or data. For example, if you were writing a paper about freedom of religion, the text of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms would be a primary source.

Other primary sources include the following:

• Research articles
• Literary texts
• Historical documents such as diaries or letters
• Autobiographies or other personal accounts

Secondary sources discuss, interpret, analyze, consolidate, or otherwise rework information from primary sources. They also tell you what research has already been conducted on your topic and what areas/conclusions have been deemed important by that scholarly community. In researching a paper about freedom of religion, you might read articles about legal cases that involved freedom of religion, or editorials expressing commentary on freedom of religion. These would be considered secondary sources because they are one step removed from the primary source of information.

The following are examples of secondary sources:

• Magazine articles
• Biographical books
• Literary and scientific reviews
• Television documentaries

Your topic and purpose determine whether you must cite both primary and secondary sources in your paper. Ask yourself which sources are most likely to provide the information that will answer your research questions. If you are writing a research paper about reality television shows, you will need to use some reality shows as a primary source, but secondary sources, such as a reviewer’s critique, are also important. If you are writing about the health effects of nicotine, you will probably want to read the published results of scientific studies, but secondary sources, such as magazine articles discussing the outcome of a recent study, may also be helpful.

Video source: https://youtu.be/CPQ95B95bWE

Once you have thought about what kinds of sources are most likely to help you answer your research questions, you may begin your search for print and electronic resources. The challenge is to conduct your search efficiently. Writers use strategies to help them find the sources that are most relevant and reliable while steering clear of sources that will not be useful.

Reading Popular and Scholarly Periodicals

When you search for periodicals, be sure to distinguish among different types. Mass market publications, such as newspapers and popular magazines, differ from scholarly publications in their accessibility, audience, and purpose.

Newspapers and magazines are written for a broader audience than scholarly journals. Their content is usually quite accessible and easy to read. Trade magazines that target readers within a particular industry may presume the reader has background knowledge, but these publications are still reader friendly for a broader audience. Their purpose is to inform and, often, to entertain or persuade readers as well.

Scholarly or academic journals are written for a much smaller and more expert audience. The creators of these publications assume that most of their readers are already familiar with the main topic of the journal. The target audience is also highly educated. Informing is the primary purpose of a scholarly journal. While a journal article may advance an agenda or advocate a position, the content will still be presented in an objective style and formal tone (which is why you have been asked to find an academic journal article). Entertaining readers with breezy comments and splashy graphics is not a priority with this type of source.

Because of these differences, scholarly journals are more challenging to read. That does not mean you should avoid them. On the contrary, they can provide in-depth information that is unavailable elsewhere. Because knowledgeable professionals carefully review the content before publication, scholarly journals are far more reliable than much of the information available in popular media. Seek out academic journals along with other resources. Just be prepared to spend a little more time processing the information.

Video source: https://youtu.be/tN8S4CbzGXU

Using online Databases

Library catalogues can help you locate book length sources, as well as some types of nonprint holdings, such as CDs, DVDs, and audiobooks. But, to locate shorter sources, such as magazine and journal articles, you will need to use an online periodical database . These tools index the articles that appear in newspapers, magazines, and journals. Like catalogues, they provide publication information about an article and often allow users to access a summary or even the full text of the article.

Commonly Used Databases

Finding and Using Electronic Resources

With the expansion of technology and media over the past few decades, a wealth of information is available to you in electronic format. Some types of resources, such as television documentaries, may only be available electronically. Other resources—for instance, many newspapers and magazines—may be available in both print and electronic form. The following are some of the electronic sources you might consult:

• Online databases
• Popular web search engines
• Websites maintained by businesses, universities, nonprofit organizations, or government agencies
• Newspapers, magazines, and journals published on the web
• Industry blogs
• Radio and television programs and other audio and video recordings
• Online discussion groups

The techniques you use to locate print resources can also help you find electronic resources efficiently. Libraries usually include CD-ROMs, audiobooks, and audio and video recordings among their holdings. You can locate these materials in the catalogue using a keyword search. The same Boolean operators used to refine database searches can help you filter your results in popular search engines.

Using Internet Search Engines Efficiently

When faced with the challenge of writing a research paper, some students rely on popular search engines as their first source of information. Typing a keyword or phrase into a search engine instantly pulls up links to dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of related websites—what could be easier? Unfortunately, despite its apparent convenience, this research strategy has the following drawbacks:

Results do not always appear in order of reliability. The first few hits that appear in search results may include sites with unreliable content, such as online encyclopedias that can be edited by any user. Because websites are created by third parties, the search engine cannot tell you which sites have accurate information.

Results may be too numerous for you to use. The amount of information available on the web is far greater than the amount of information housed within a particular library or database. Realistically, if your web search pulls up thousands of hits, you will not be able to visit every site—and the most useful sites may be buried deep within your search results.

Search engines are not connected to the results of the search. Search engines find websites that people visit often and list the results in order of popularity. The search engine, then, is not connected to any of the results. When you cite a source found through a search engine, you do not need to cite the search engine. Only cite the source.

A general web search can provide a helpful overview of a topic and may pull up genuinely useful resources. To get the most out of a search engine like Google Scholar , however, you will need to use strategies to make your search more efficient.

To find resources efficiently, first identify the major concepts and terms you will use to conduct your search—that is, your keywords . Use multiple keywords and Boolean operators to limit your results.  These will help you find sources using any of the following methods:

• Using the library’s online catalogue
• Using periodicals indexes and databases
• Consulting a reference librarian

Video source: https://youtu.be/EevV36TGIE8

Depending on the specific search engine you use, the following options may be available:

• Limit results to websites that have been updated within a particular time frame
• Limit results by language or country
• Limit results to scholarly works available online
• Limit results by file type
• Limit results to a particular domain type, such as .edu (school and university sites) or .gov (government sites). This is a quick way to filter out commercial sites, which can often lead to more objective results.
• Use the “bookmarks” or “favourites” feature of your web browser to save and organize sites that look promising.

Finding Print Resources

Print resources include a vast array of documents and publications. Regardless of your topic, you will consult some print resources as part of your research. (You will use electronic sources as well, but it is not wise to limit yourself to electronic sources only because some potentially useful sources may be available only in print form.)

Yes, folks, physical books do still hold some merit!

Types of Print Resources

Some of these resources are also widely available in electronic format. In addition to the resources noted in the table, library holdings may include primary texts such as historical documents, letters, and diaries.

Writing at Work

Businesses, government organizations, and nonprofit organizations produce published materials that range from brief advertisements and brochures to lengthy, detailed reports. In many cases, producing these publications requires research. A corporation’s annual report may include research about economic or industry trends. A charitable organization may use information from research in materials sent to potential donors.

Regardless of the industry you work in, you may be asked to assist in developing materials for publication. Often, incorporating research in these documents can make them more effective in informing or persuading readers.

Evaluating Research Resources

As you gather sources, you will need to examine them with a critical eye. Smart researchers continually ask themselves two questions: “Is this source relevant to my purpose?” and “Is this source reliable?” The first question will help you avoid wasting valuable time reading sources that stray too far from your specific topic and research questions. The second question will help you find accurate, trustworthy sources.

Determining Whether a Source Is Relevant

At this point in your research process, you may have identified dozens of potential sources. It is easy for writers to get so caught up in checking out books and printing out articles that they forget to ask themselves how they will use these resources in their research. Now is a good time to get a little ruthless. Reading and taking notes takes time and energy, so you will want to focus on the most relevant sources.

To weed through your stack of books and articles, skim their contents. Read quickly with your research questions and subtopics in mind. If a book or article is not especially relevant, put it aside. You can always come back to it later if you need to.

Tips for Skimming Books and Articles

Some sources are better than others: let’s talk wikipedia!

You probably know by now that if you cite Wikipedia as an authoritative source, your professors will be unimpressed. Why is it that even the most informative Wikipedia articles are still often considered illegitimate?  Because the information is subject to change by anyone (though that has changed recently as Wikipedia works on its quality control).

However, Wikipedia is a great place to begin your research for two reasons:

• It provides a great overview of your topic, including  keywords
• The reference page of the Wikipedia entry is a great place to begin your research

So, what are good sources to use? The table below summarizes types of secondary sources in four tiers. All sources have their legitimate uses, but the top-tier ones are preferable for citation in academic research papers as secondary sources.

Tier 1: Peer-reviewed academic publications

These are sources from the mainstream academic literature: books and scholarly articles. Academic books generally fall into three categories: (1) textbooks written with students in mind, (2) monographs which give an extended report on a large research project, and (3) edited volumes in which each chapter is authored by different people. Scholarly articles appear in academic journals, which are published multiple times a year in order to share the latest research findings with scholars in the field. They’re usually sponsored by some academic society. To get published, these articles and books had to earn favorable anonymous evaluations by qualified scholars in a process called Peer Review . Who are the experts writing, reviewing, and editing these scholarly publications? Your professors. This process is described in more detail below. Learning how to read and use these sources is a fundamental part of being a college student.

Video source: https://youtu.be/rOCQZ7QnoN0

Tier 2: Reports, articles and books from credible non-academic sources

Some events and trends are too recent to appear in Tier 1 sources. Also, Tier 1 sources tend to be highly specific, and sometimes you need a more general perspective on a topic. Thus, Tier 2 sources can provide quality information that is more accessible to non-academics. There are three main categories. First, official reports from government agencies or major international institutions like the World Bank or the United Nations ; these institutions generally have research departments staffed with qualified experts who seek to provide rigorous, even-handed information to decision-makers. Second, feature articles from major newspapers and magazines like the New York Times , Wall Street Journal , London Times , or The Economist are based on original reporting by experienced journalists (not press releases) and are typically 1500+ words in length. Third, there are some great books from non-academic presses that cite their sources; they’re often written by journalists. All three of these sources are generally well researched descriptions of an event or state of the world, undertaken by credentialed experts who generally seek to be even-handed. It is still up to you to judge their credibility. Your instructors and campus librarians can advise you on which sources in this category have the most credibility.

Tier 3. Short pieces from periodicals or credible websites

A step below the well-developed reports and feature articles that make up Tier 2 are the short tidbits that one finds in newspapers and magazines or credible websites. How short is a short news article? Usually, they’re just a couple paragraphs or less, and they’re often reporting on just one thing: an event, an interesting research finding, or a policy change. They don’t take extensive research and analysis to write, and many just summarize a press release written and distributed by an organization or business. They may describe things like corporate mergers, newly discovered diet-health links, or important school-funding legislation. You may want to cite Tier 3 sources in your paper if they provide an important factoid or two that isn’t provided by a higher-tier piece, but if the Tier 3 article describes a particular study or academic expert, your best bet is to find the journal article or book it is reporting on and use that Tier 1 source instead. If the article mentions which journal the study was published in, you can go right to that journal through your library website. Sometimes you can find the original journal article by putting the scholar’s name and some keywords into Google Scholar.

What counts as a credible website in this tier? You may need some guidance from instructors or librarians, but you can learn a lot by examining the person or organization providing the information (look for an “About” link). For example, if the organization is clearly agenda-driven or not up-front about its aims and/or funding sources, then it definitely isn’t something you want to cite as a neutral authority. Also look for signs of expertise. A tidbit about a medical research finding written by someone with a science background carries more weight than the same topic written by a policy analyst. These sources are sometimes uncertain, which is all the more reason to follow the trail to a Tier 1 or Tier 2 source whenever possible.

Tier 4. Agenda-driven or pieces from unknown sources

This tier is essentially everything else, including Wikipedia. [1] These types of sources—especially Wikipedia—can be hugely helpful in identifying interesting topics, positions within a debate, keywords to search on, and, sometimes, higher-tier sources on the topic. They often play a critically important role in the early part of the research process, but they generally aren’t (and shouldn’t be) cited in the final paper. Throwing some keywords into Google and seeing what you get is a fine way to get started, but don’t stop there. Start a list of the people, organizations, sources, and keywords that seem most relevant to your topic. For example, suppose you’ve been assigned a research paper about the impact of linen production and trade on the ancient world. A quick Google search reveals that (1) linen comes from the flax plant, (2) the scientific name for flax is Linum usitatissimum , (3) Egypt dominated linen production at the height of its empire, and (4) Alex J. Warden published a book about ancient linen trade in 1867. Similarly, you found some useful search terms to try instead of “ancient world” (antiquity, Egyptian empire, ancient Egypt, ancient Mediterranean) and some generalizations for linen (fabric, textiles, or weaving). Now you’ve got a lot to work with as you tap into the library catalog and academic article databases.

For examples of different styles of writing, see “Module 4: Supplementary Readings” in this textbook 

Determining Whether a Source Is Reliable

All information sources are not created equal. Sources can vary greatly in terms of how carefully they are researched, written, edited, and reviewed for accuracy. Common sense will help you identify obviously questionable sources, such as tabloids that feature tales of alien abductions, or personal websites with glaring typos. Sometimes, however, a source’s reliability—or lack of it—is not so obvious.

To evaluate your research sources, you will use critical thinking skills consciously and deliberately. You will consider criteria such as the type of source, its intended purpose and audience, the author’s qualifications, the publication’s reputation, any indications of bias or hidden agendas, how current the source is, and the overall quality of the writing, thinking, and design.

Evaluating Types of Sources

The different types of sources you will consult are written for distinct purposes and with different audiences in mind. This accounts for other differences, such as the following:

• How thoroughly the writers cover a given topic
• How carefully the writers research and document facts
• How editors review the work
• What biases or agendas affect the content.

A journal article written for an academic audience for the purpose of expanding scholarship in a given field will take an approach quite different from a magazine feature written to inform a general audience. Textbooks, hard news articles, and websites approach a subject from different angles as well. To some extent, the type of source provides clues about its overall depth and reliability. The following table ranks popular sources of information:

Evaluating Credibility and Reputability

Even when you are using a type of source that is generally reliable, you will still need to evaluate the author’s credibility and the publication itself on an individual basis. To examine the author’s credibility —that is, how much you can believe of what the author has to say—examine his or her credentials. What career experience or academic study shows that the author has the expertise to write about this topic?

Video source: https://youtu.be/tdcmjPR7Ntw

Keep in mind that expertise in one field is no guarantee of expertise in another, unrelated area. For instance, an author may have an advanced degree in physiology, but this credential is not a valid qualification for writing about psychology. Check credentials carefully.

Just as important as the author’s credibility is the publication’s overall reputability. Reputability refers to a source’s standing and reputation as a respectable, reliable source of information. An established and well-known newspaper, such as the Globe and Mail or the New York Times, is more reputable than a college newspaper put out by comparatively inexperienced students. A website that is maintained by a well-known, respected organization and is regularly updated is more reputable than one created by an unknown author or group.

If you are using articles from scholarly journals, you can check databases that keep count of how many times each article has been cited in other articles. This can give you a rough indication of the article’s quality or, at the very least, of its influence and reputation among other scholars.

Using Current Sources

Depending on the topic, sources may become outdated relatively soon after publication, or they may remain useful for years. The age of a source you can use will depend on your research topic and approach.  For example, were you to be investigating current medical developments for Diabetes, be sure to seek out sources that are current, or up to date.   If you were examining the history of Diabetes medical developments, you would be looking for sources as far back as you could go.

Timeliness is a complicated issue for researchers, particularly with the internet.  For instance, online social networking sites have evolved rapidly over the past few years. An article published in 2002 about this topic will not provide current information. On the other hand, a research paper on elementary education practices might refer to studies published decades ago by influential child psychologists.

When using websites for research, check to see when the site was last updated. Many sites publish this information on the homepage, and some, such as news sites, are updated daily or weekly. Many nonfunctioning links are a sign that a website is not regularly updated. Do not be afraid to ask your instructor for suggestions if you find that many of your most relevant sources are not especially reliable—or that the most reliable sources are not relevant.

Evaluating Overall Quality by Asking Questions

When you evaluate a source, you will consider the criteria previously discussed as well as your overall impressions of its quality. Read carefully, and notice how well the author presents and supports his or her statements. Stay actively engaged—do not simply accept an author’s words as truth.

Source Evaluation Questions:

• Is the type of source appropriate for my purpose? Is it a high-quality source or one that needs to be looked at more critically?
• Can I establish that the author is credible and the publication is reputable?
• Does the author support ideas with specific facts and details that are carefully documented? Is the source of the author’s information clear? (When you use secondary sources, look for sources that are not too removed from primary research.)
• Does the source include any factual errors or instances of faulty logic?
• Does the author leave out any information that I would expect to see in a discussion of this topic?
• Do the author’s conclusions logically follow from the evidence that is presented? Can I see how the author got from one point to another?
• Is the writing clear and organized, and is it free from errors, clichés, and empty buzzwords? Is the tone objective, balanced, and reasonable? (Be on the lookout for extreme, emotionally charged language.)
• Are there any obvious biases or agendas? Based on what I know about the author, are there likely to be any hidden agendas?
• Are graphics informative, useful, and easy to understand? Are websites organized, easy to navigate, and free of clutter like flashing ads and unnecessary sound effects?
• Is the source contradicted by information found in other sources? (If so, it is possible that your sources are presenting similar information but taking different perspectives, which requires you to think carefully about which sources you find more convincing and why. Be suspicious, however, of any source that presents facts that you cannot confirm elsewhere.)

The critical thinking skills you use to evaluate research sources as a student are equally valuable when you conduct research on the job. If you follow certain periodicals or websites, you have probably identified publications that consistently provide reliable information. Reading blogs and online discussion groups is a great way to identify new trends and hot topics in a particular field, but these sources should not be used for substantial research.

Self-Practice Exercise

Use a search engine to conduct a web search on your topic. Refer to the tips provided earlier to help you streamline your search. Evaluate your search results critically based on the criteria you have learned. Identify and bookmark one or more websites that are reliable, reputable, and likely to be useful in your research.

Managing Sources

As you determine which sources you will rely on most, it is important to establish a system for keeping track of your sources and taking notes. There are several ways to go about it, and no one system is necessarily superior. What matters is that you keep materials in order; record bibliographical information you will need later; and take detailed, organized notes.

Bibliographic information is all the referencing information you need from all sources you consider using for your paper—think of this as your working references page. Any time you look at a source, you should make note of all the referencing information—you may later decide to change direction in your paper or simply choose not to use that source as you develop your paper, but if you do decide to use that source, you will have all the details you need when compiling your references page.

Keeping Track of Your Sources

Think ahead to a moment a few weeks from now when you will have written your final research paper and are almost ready to submit it for a grade. There is just one task left: writing your list of sources.

As you begin typing your list, you realize you need to include the publication information for a book you cited frequently. Unfortunately, you already returned it to the library several days ago. You do not remember the URLs for some of the websites you used or the dates you accessed them—information that also must be included in your reference page. With a sinking feeling, you realize that finding this information and preparing your references will require hours of work.

This stressful scenario can be avoided. Taking time to organize source information now will ensure that you are not scrambling to find it at the last minute. Throughout your research, record bibliographical information for each source as soon as you begin using it. You may use pen-and-paper methods, such as a notebook or note cards, or maintain an electronic list. (If you prefer the latter option, many office software packages include separate programs for recording bibliographic information, or you can try popular programs like Mendeley or Zotero )

Use these details to develop a working bibliography —a preliminary list of sources that you will later use to develop the references section of your paper. You may wish to record information using the formatting system of the American Psychological Association (APA), which will save a step later on.

Details for Commonly Used Source Types

Origins and anatomy of a journal article

Most of the Tier 1 sources available are academic articles, also called scholarly articles, scholarly papers, journal articles, academic papers, or peer-reviewed articles. They all mean the same thing: a paper published in an academic periodical (think: magazine for nerds) after being scrutinized anonymously and judged to be sound by other experts in the subfield.  Academic papers are essentially reports that scholars write to their peers—present and future—about what they’ve done in their research, what they’ve found, and why they think it’s important. The origin of academic articles explains both their basic structure and the high esteem they have in the eyes of your professors.

Thus, in a lot of fields they often have a structure reminiscent of the lab reports you may have written for science classes:

• Abstract : A one-paragraph summary of the article: its purpose, methods, findings, and significance.
• Introduction : An overview of the key question or problem that the paper addresses, why it is important, and the key conclusion(s) (i.e., thesis or theses) of the paper.
• Literature review : A synthesis of all the relevant prior research (the so-called “academic literature” on the subject) that explains why the paper makes an original and important contribution to the body of knowledge.
• Data and methods : An explanation of what data or information the author(s) used and what they did with it.
• Results : A full explanation of the key findings of the study.
• Conclusion/discussion : Puts the key findings or insights from the paper into their broader context; explains why they matter.

But beware! Not all papers are so “sciencey.” For example, a historical or literary analysis doesn’t necessarily have a “data and methods” section; however, they do explain and justify the research question, describe how the authors’ own points relate to those made in other relevant articles and books, develop the key insights yielded by the analysis, and conclude by explaining their significance. Some academic papers are review articles, in which the “data” are published papers and the “findings” are key insights, enduring lines of debate, and/or remaining unanswered questions.

Credible scholarly journals use a peer-review process to decide which articles merit publication.  However, academia is seeing a shift in how research is being disseminated.  Self-publishing on platforms such as  Academia.edu or even  LinkedIn is becoming increasingly more popular, but comes with a risk: the articles are not likely to have been peer-reviewed.  There are also open-access journals that do not charge fees to institutions or researchers to read articles.

reading academic journal articles

Reading an academic journal article is different from most reading strategies that you may use in other contexts.  Rarely do researchers read an academic journal in a linear way, from start to finish.  Check out the following video for tips on how to read academic journal articles efficiently and effectively:

Video source: https://youtu.be/3MzBumiwje0

Research papers, amongst others, are the most common papers a college student will ever write, and as difficult as it may sound, it is not impossible to complete. Research papers are my favorite kind of papers because of sourcing, paraphrasing, and quoting. Naturally as you would in other papers, your own paper should come from yourself, but when you are proving a point about a specific area of your topic, it is always ok to have a credible source explain further. In college, sources are very important for most, if not all papers you will have, and citing those sources is important as well. After you are able to familiarize yourself with citations, it will come natural like it has for many students.

Consulting a Reference Librarian

Sifting through library stacks and database search results to find the information you need can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. If you are not sure how you should begin your search, or if it is yielding too many or too few results, you are not alone. Many students find this process challenging, although it does get easier with experience. One way to learn better search strategies is to consult a reference librarian.

Reference librarians are intimately familiar with the systems libraries use to organize and classify information. They can help you locate a particular book in the library stacks, steer you toward useful reference works, and provide tips on how to use databases and other electronic research tools. Take the time to see what resources you can find on your own, but if you encounter difficulties, ask for help.

You can find the Sheridan College Library information here .

Visit your library’s website or consult with a reference librarian to determine what periodicals indexes or databases would be useful for your research. Depending on your topic, you may rely on a general news index, a specialized index for a particular subject area, or both. Search the catalogue for your topic and related keywords. Print out or bookmark your search results.

Identify at least one to two relevant periodicals, indexes, or databases.

Conduct a keyword search to find potentially relevant articles on your topic.

Save your search results. If the index you are using provides article summaries, read these to determine how useful the articles are likely to be.

Identify at least three to five articles to review more closely. If the full article is available online, set aside time to read it. If not, plan to visit our library within the next few days to locate the articles you need.

PRO TIP: One way to refine your keyword search is to use Boolean operators. These allow you to combine keywords, find variations on a word, and otherwise expand or limit your results. Here are some of the ways you can use Boolean operators:

• Combine keywords with and or + to limit results to citations that include both keywords—for example, diet + nutrition.
• Combine keywords with or to find synonyms. For example, prison or jail . The phrase “Or is more” may help you remember that using this will show you more results.
• Combine keywords with not or – to search for the first word without the second. This can help you eliminate irrelevant results based on words that are similar to your search term. For example, searching for stress fractures not geological locates materials on fractures of bones but excludes materials on fractures of stones . Use this one cautiously because it may exclude useful sources.
• Enclose a phrase in quotation marks to search for an exact phrase, such as “morbid obesity,” “ use of force ,” or “ law enforcement .”
• Use parentheses to direct the order of operations in a search string. For example, since Type II diabetes is also known as adult onset diabetes, you could search (Type II or adult onset or Type 2) and diabetes to limit your search results to articles on this form of the disease.
• Use a wildcard symbol such as * , #, ?, or $ after a word to search for variations on a term. For instance, you might type gang* to search for information on gang, gangs, and gangland. The specific symbol used varies with different databases.

Discover Sheridan’s Library Services

Sheridan’s Library collects academic material related to all programs and courses offered at Sheridan. Along with the traditional library materials in print (books, journals, etc), they increasingly collect online material so that you can easily access our content at any time from anywhere!

For a more comprehensive overview of the Sheridan Library, check out their First Year Quick Start Guide .

Where do I start my Search?

Use  Summon  to find content from the many different databases and collections that we subscribe to, as well as items on library shelves. A great place to start your search!

Once you become familiar with library resources, you’ll quickly get to know which databases are best for your specific information need. We list all of our databases and sites through the  Databases A-Z  list.

View library-created  Research Guides   to find all types of resources specific to your research topics.

 Databases & Streaming Media

We have over 200 databases on a wide range of subjects and disciplines. Use the  A-Z Database List  to access databases and streaming media sites, which includes content from journal articles, newspapers, images, videos, tutorials, and more.

We currently have more ebooks than books on the shelves! We get ebooks from more than one company. Some can be downloaded, but most are available without downloading. All you need is your Sheridan Credentials to access them! Find ebooks through  Summon .

 Textbooks & Course Reserves

Textbooks  are available for 3hr loan periods at each campus library. Our textbooks are intended to be used for quick reference only. We recommend that students purchase their own copies. Search for your textbook titles in  Summon . Course reserves  are typically non-textbook items that a professor has recommended for reading. Loan periods are generally 2hr loans, but may vary. Course reserves are kept behind the service desk at each campus library.  Ask staff at the library service desk .

 English Language Learning (ELL) Resources

We have many resources available for all levels of ESL students to improve reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. See our  English Language Learning Guide  for more details.

 Games & Equipment

You can now borrow board games, video games and PlayStation game consoles from the library! Board games are available at Davis campus library. Video games and PlayStation consoles are available at Trafalgar campus library. Visit us in person to check them out, and see the Borrowing Policy below for more details.

Study Spaces

All Sheridan campus libraries and learning commons provide a range of environments for different needs.

• Quiet study areas
• Group study areas where you can collaborate and chat
• Private group study rooms

Book a  Group Study Room  online.

Tutoring Services

At the Tutoring Centre, Learning Assistants (LAs) offer tutoring in specific subject areas (listed below) at no additional cost to you as a Sheridan student.  As senior co-op students recruited from Sheridan, University of Waterloo, Ryerson, and University of Guelph, the LAs in the Tutoring Centre are knowledgeable and well qualified to support you in your studies.

How it Works:

Book up to 2 hours per week, per subject.

• Book an Appointment  – first-time users must register using a Sheridan email address
• Drop-in Hours  – Varies from term to term
• Not able to come visit us during our open hours? Email us with your questions and/or comments at  [email protected]
• Architecture –  Covers the use of architecture-related software (e.g., AutoCAD, Sketchup), as well as technical math, drafting, and other related topics. Plus, your LA can provide explanations of OBC standards and help you better understand course material.
• Chemistry  – Covers fundamental issues related to Chemistry, Organic and Biochemistry from a health perspective (Pharmacy, Nursing, Nutrition and Medicine).
• Citation & References  – Covers how to build and correct your citations and references for your writing assignments (APA, MLA and other styles). Bring your references, sources, and citation questions! By appointment only.
• Computer Programming  – Covers object-oriented programming (Java 1 and Java 2) and other computer programming-related questions.
• English/Writing – Covers writing practice, presentation skills, basic computing, study and test-taking skills, citing sources, and pronunciation. In addition, tutors can review a portion of your assignment for structure and grammar and offer constructive feedback on content and style. NOTE: Your tutor cannot proofread an entire assignment for you, but they can help you improve your proof-reading skills.
• Math & Business Math – Covers general Math, most Business Math topics (e.g., Accounting, Finance, Statistics, etc.), as well as many technical Math and related topics. Your LA can provide explanations of math concepts, and patiently help you problem solve your way to finding solutions and understanding your subject better.
• Wikipedia is a conundrum. There are a lot of excellent articles on there, and I, like many other professors, embrace the open-access values that embody things like Wikipedia and this very textbook. It’s not that Wikipedia is crap; it’s just that there are much more solid alternatives. ↵

Writing for Academic and Professional Contexts: An Introduction Copyright © 2023 by Sheridan College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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One piece chapter #1114 release date & time.

One Piece Chapter #1113 initiates Dr. Vegapunk's message to the world and here's when fans can read its continuation in chapter #1114.

• Dr. Vegapunk's message in One Piece chapter #1114 holds a warning, teasing more secrets of the world's lore.
• The anticipation for the chapter is high, as fans await the revelation that could change the world order.
• One Piece Chapter #1114 releases on May 12th, available for free on Viz Media and Manga Plus platforms.

One Piece chapter #1114 will be the next installment in the series, set to unveil Dr. Vegapunk's message to the world. Given the start of the message showcases Dr. Vegapunk heeding a warning, chapter #1114 will likely see the reason for it.

Since the possibility of Dr. Vegapunk's message could dive into any direction and also reveal more secrets about the world of One Piece as it rapidly nears its conclusion.

The anticipation for the upcoming chapter due to the amount of lore implications is at an all-time high for fans of the series.

What Time Does One Piece Chapter #1114 Release?

Original series created by eiichiro oda.

One Piece Chapter #1114 will be free to read on Viz Media and Manga Plus' website. In addition, the latest three and the first chapters of One Piece are also free to read on Viz Media and Manga Plus. Chapter #1114 of One Piece will be released on Sunday, May 12th at 11 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST) . Incidentally, the chapter will be available at 8 AM Pacific Time, 10 AM Central Time, and 4 PM Greenwich Mean Time . Fans with a monetary subscription to Shueisha’s Shonen Jump+ app could also access all chapters of One Piece .

What Happened In One Piece Chapter #1113?

Tensions rise as the countdown to vegapunk's message reaches its end.

In One Piece Chapter #1113, titled "Stalemate", tension grips as the countdown to Dr. Vegapunk's recorded message reaches its final moments. Amidst the anticipation, Saint Marcus Mars, one of the five elders, enters Punk Records, where the video transponder snail is broadcasting the message. Luckily, it's all a ruse, and the urgency to prevent the message's dissemination sends the elders into a panic. Meanwhile, Sanji hears Bonney's screaming and rushes to save her from Ethanbaron. In the process, Sanji gets grabbed instead. However, Oimo and Kashii arrive to save him, and Bonney joins the fight by turning into a giant .

All the while, Dr. Vegapunk's message continues, revealing that he has triggered this message when his heart stops beating, causing havoc and worry among the listeners. As the message starts with Dr. Vegapunk's ideology regarding good and evil, the straw hats protect Nico Robin from Saturn. Mars, one of the Five Elders suggests destroying the power plant, but the others disagree as doing so will prevent them from making "Mother Flame" ever. As the chapter comes to a close, Dr. Vegapunk reveals that their world is going to sink into the ocean .

What Does Dr. Vegapunk's Message Intel?

One Piece chapter #1113 specifically sees the Five Elders mentioning that Dr. Vegapunk is carrying Ohara's legacy. This revelation hints at a profound connection between Vegapunk and the void century , suggesting that Vegapunk may be on the verge of uncovering some of the world's deepest secrets . Given Vegapunk's apparent intention to expose the World Government's sinister machinations, this discovery could cause a global awakening.

If Vegapunk indeed aims to reveal what Ohara had uncovered, it could potentially shake the very foundations of the world order. The revelation of the darkest secrets of the World Government might spur widespread rebellion and unite the world against its oppressive rule .

Created by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece is a multimedia franchise that began as a manga series and follows the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates as led by Monkey D. Luffy. Luffy, an enthusiastic pirate with a thirst for adventure, is afflicted by a mysterious curse that gives him various powers he uses to protect himself and his friends. The manga eventually gave way to the anime series, with the two being some of history's longest-running anime and manga series. Along with over fifty video games made over the years, the series entered the live-action world with Netflix's 2023 adaptation.

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Discrimination Experiences Shape Most Asian Americans’ Lives

3. asian americans and the ‘model minority’ stereotype, table of contents.

• Key findings from the survey
• Most Asian Americans have been treated as foreigners in some way, no matter where they were born
• Most Asian Americans have been subjected to ‘model minority’ stereotypes, but many haven’t heard of the term
• Experiences with other daily and race-based discrimination incidents
• In their own words: Key findings from qualitative research on Asian Americans and discrimination experiences
• Discrimination in interpersonal encounters with strangers
• Racial discrimination at security checkpoints
• Encounters with police because of race or ethnicity
• Racial discrimination in the workplace
• Quality of service in restaurants and stores
• Discrimination in neighborhoods
• Experiences with name mispronunciation
• Discrimination experiences of being treated as foreigners
• In their own words: How Asian Americans would react if their friend was told to ‘go back to their home country’
• Awareness of the term ‘model minority’
• Views of the term ‘model minority’
• How knowledge of Asian American history impacts awareness and views of the ‘model minority’ label
• Most Asian Americans have experienced ‘model minority’ stereotypes
• In their own words: Asian Americans’ experiences with the ‘model minority’ stereotype
• Asian adults who personally know an Asian person who has been threatened or attacked since COVID-19
• In their own words: Asian Americans’ experiences with discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Experiences with talking about racial discrimination while growing up
• Is enough attention being paid to anti-Asian racism in the U.S.?
• Acknowledgments
• Sample design
• Data collection
• Weighting and variance estimation
• Methodology: 2021 focus groups of Asian Americans
• Appendix: Supplemental tables

In the survey, we asked Asian Americans about their views and experiences with another stereotype: Asians in the U.S. being a “model minority.” Asian adults were asked about their awareness of the label “model minority,” their views on whether the term is a good or bad thing, and their experiences with being treated in ways that reflect the stereotype.

What is the ‘model minority’ stereotype?

Amid the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, another narrative about Asian Americans became widespread: being characterized as a “model” minority. In 1966, two articles were published in The New York Times Magazine and U.S. News and World Report that portrayed Japanese and Chinese Americans as examples of successful minorities. Additionally, in 1987 Time magazine published a cover story on “those Asian American whiz kids.” The model minority stereotype has characterized the nation’s Asian population as high-achieving economically and educationally, which has been attributed to Asians being hardworking and deferential to parental and authority figures, among other factors. The stereotype generalizes Asians in the U.S. as intelligent, well-off, and able to excel in fields such as math and science. Additionally, the model minority myth positions Asian Americans in comparison with other non-White groups such as Black and Hispanic Americans.

For many Asians living in the United States, these characterizations do not align with their lived experiences  or reflect their diverse socioeconomic backgrounds . Among Asian origin groups in the U.S., there are wide differences in economic and social experiences. Additionally, academic research has investigated how the pressures of the model minority stereotype can impact Asian Americans’ mental health and academic performance . Critics of the myth have also pointed to its impact on other racial and ethnic groups, especially Black Americans. Some argue that the myth has been used to minimize racial discrimination and justify policies that overlook the historical circumstances and impacts of colonialism, slavery and segregation on other non-White racial and ethnic groups.

More than half of Asian adults (55%) say they have not heard of the term “model minority.” Just under half (44%) say they have heard of the term.

There are some differences in awareness of the term across demographic groups:

• Ethnic origin: About half of Korean and Chinese adults say they have heard of the term, while only about one-third of Indian adults say the same.
• Nativity: 57% of U.S.-born Asian adults have heard the term “model minority,” compared with 40% of immigrants.
• Immigrant generation: Among immigrants, 60% of those who came to the U.S. as children (“1.5 generation” in this report) say they have heard of the term “model minority,” compared with 32% of those who came to the U.S. as adults (first generation). And among U.S.-born Asian Americans, those who are second generation are more likely than those who are third or higher generation to say the same (62% vs. 40%).
• Age: 56% of Asian adults under 30 say they have heard of the term, compared with fewer than half among older Asian adults.
• Party: 51% of Asian adults who identify with or lean to the Democratic Party say they’ve heard the term, compared with 34% of those who identify with or lean to the Republican Party.

Awareness of the term ‘model minority’ varies across education and income

Asian adults with higher levels of formal education and higher family income are more likely to say they have heard of the term “model minority”:

• 53% of Asian adults with a postgraduate degree say they have heard the term, compared with smaller shares of those with a bachelor’s degree or less.
• 54% of Asian adults who make $150,000 or more say they have heard the term, higher than the shares among those with lower incomes. Among Asian Americans who make less than $30,000, only 29% say they have heard of the term “model minority.”

Notably, awareness of the term is higher among those born in the U.S. than immigrants across all levels of education and income.

Among Asian adults who have heard of the term “model minority,” about four-in-ten say using it to describe Asians in the U.S. is a bad thing. Another 28% say using it is neither good nor bad, 17% say using it is a good thing, and 12% say they are not sure.

These views vary by ethnic origin, nativity, age and party. Among those who have heard of the term:

• Ethnic origin: Among Indian adults, the gap between those who say the term “model minority” is a bad thing and those who say it is a good thing (36% vs. 27%) is smaller than among other ethnic origin groups.
• Nativity: 60% of U.S.-born Asian adults say describing Asians as a model minority is a bad thing, while 9% say it is a good thing. Meanwhile, immigrants’ views of the model minority stereotype are more split (33% vs. 21%, respectively).
• Immigrant generation: Among immigrants, 43% of 1.5-generation Asian adults say using the term “model minority” is a bad thing, compared with 26% of first-generation Asian adults.
• Age: Asian adults under 30 are far more likely to say the model minority label is a bad thing than a good thing (66% vs. 8%). Meanwhile, Asian adults 65 and older are more likely to say describing Asian Americans as a model minority is a good thing (36%) than a bad thing (17%).
• Party: 52% of Asian Democrats say describing Asians as a model minority is a bad thing, about three times the share of Asian Republicans who say the same (17%). 

Among those who know the term “model minority,” views of whether using it to describe Asians in the U.S. is a good or bad thing does not vary significantly across education levels. By income, Asian adults who make less than $30,000 are somewhat less likely to say it is a bad thing than those with higher incomes. 18

Views of the ‘model minority’ label are linked to perceptions of the American dream

In the survey, we asked Asian Americans if they believe they have achieved the American dream, are on their way to achieving it, or if they believe the American dream is out of their reach. Among those who have heard of the term “model minority”:

• 54% of Asian adults who believe the American dream is out of their reach say describing Asian Americans as a model minority is a bad thing. This is higher than the shares among those who believe they are on their way to achieving (44%) or believe they have already achieved the American dream (30%).
• Meanwhile, 26% of Asian adults who believe they have achieved the American dream say the model minority label is a good thing. In comparison, 14% of those who believe they are on their way to achieving the American dream and 11% of those who believe that the American dream is out of their reach say the same.

In this survey, we asked Asian Americans how informed they are about the history of Asians in the U.S.

Whether Asian adults have heard of the model minority label is linked to their knowledge of Asian American history:

• 62% of Asian adults who are extremely or very informed of U.S. Asian history have heard of the term “model minority.”
• Smaller shares of those who are somewhat informed (44%) or a little or not at all informed (29%) about U.S. Asian history say they are aware of the term.  

However, among those who have heard of the “model minority” label, views on whether using it to describe Asian Americans is good or bad are similar regardless of how informed they are on Asian American history. About four-in-ten across knowledge levels say describing Asian Americans as a model minority is a bad thing.

The model minority stereotype often paints Asian Americans as intellectually and financially successful, deferential to authority, and competent but robotic or unemotional , especially in comparison with other racial and ethnic groups. Additionally, some stereotypes associated with the model minority characterize Asian Americans as successful in fields such as math and science, as well as lacking in creativity.

Nearly two-thirds of Asian adults (63%) say that in their day-to-day encounters with strangers, they have at least one experience in which someone assumed they are good at math and science or not a creative thinker.

Broadly, Asian adults are far more likely to say someone has assumed they are good at math and science (58%) than not a creative thinker (22%).

Across these experiences, there are some differences by demographic groups:

• Ethnic origin: 68% of Indian adults say strangers have assumed they are good at math and science, a higher share than among most other origin groups. Meanwhile, about half or fewer of Japanese (47%) and Filipino (43%) adults say people have made this assumption about them.
• Immigrant generation: About seven-in-ten Asian adults who are 1.5 generation and second generation each say people have assumed they are good at math and science, compared with 50% among the first generation and 46% among third or higher generations.
• Education: About two-thirds of Asian adults with a postgraduate degree or a bachelor’s degree say strangers have assumed they are good at math and science, compared with roughly half of those with some college experience or less. Similar shares regardless of education say people have assumed they are not a creative thinker.
• Income: 69% of those who make $150,000 or more say strangers have assumed they are good at math and science, compared with 43% of those who make less than $30,000.  
• Race: 59% of single-race Asian adults (those who identify as Asian and no other race) say someone assumed they are good at math and science, compared with 45% of Asian adults who identify with two or more races (those who identify as Asian and at least one other race).

In our 2021 focus groups of Asian Americans, participants talked about their views of and experiences with the “model minority” stereotype.

Many U.S.-born Asian participants shared how it has been harmful , with some discussing the social pressures associated with it. Others spoke about how the stereotype portrays Asians as monolithic and compares them with other racial and ethnic groups.

“You have to be polished. There’s no room for failure. There’s no room for imperfections. You have to be well-spoken, well-educated, have the right opinions, be good-looking, be tall. [You] have to have a family structure. There’s no room for any sort of freedom in identity except for the mold that you’ve been painted as – as a model citizen.”

–U.S.-born man of Pakistani origin in early 30s

“As an Asian person, I feel like there’s a stereotype that Asian students are high achievers academically. They’re good at math and science. … I was a pretty mediocre student, and math and science were actually my weakest subjects, so I feel like it’s either way you lose. Teachers expect you to fit a certain stereotype and if you’re not, then you’re a disappointment, but at the same time, even if you are good at math and science, that just means that you’re fitting a stereotype. It’s [actually] your own achievement, but your teachers might think ‘Oh, it’s because they’re Asian,’ and that diminishes your achievement.”

–U.S.-born woman of Korean origin in late 20s

“The model minority myth … mak[es] us as Asians [and] South Asians monoliths. … I’ve had people go, ‘Oh, so your dad’s a doctor? Is he a lawyer? Do you have money? Do you have this? Do you have that? Are you [in] an arranged marriage?’ And just the kind of image that portrays and gives us. But the expectations put on us as being high performing and everyone assumes you’re going to be smart. … I am a black sheep in many ways, not only within my family, but within Asian [and] South Asian culture, being [in my profession], someone who’s not a doctor, who hasn’t gone the professional, traditional, educational route. So, it’s very harmful, that too, for those communities within the Asian diaspora who have come to the United States. … [M]any of them come from impoverished and underrepresented communities and the expectations put on them to produce or the types of jobs and menial labor they have to take on as a result is really a very poisonous mythos to have out there.”

–U.S.-born woman of Indian origin in early 40s

“One of the reasons the model minority fallacy works so well as an argument against affirmative action [for Indians is] they are a newer immigrant group that has come here and … [t]here’s a lot of education [in India]. People have opportunity there that then they can come [to America] and continue with those connections. Whereas Blacks and Hispanics have had generations of oppression, so they don’t have anything to build off of. So when you bucket everybody – Black, Hispanics and Asians – into one group, then you can make those arguments of, ‘Oh, [Asians] are the model minority, they can do it.’”

Some participants talked about having mixed feelings about being called the “model minority” and how they felt like it put them in a kind of “middle ground.” 

“I feel like Asians are kind of known as the model minority. That kind of puts us in an interesting position where I feel like we’re supposed to excel and succeed in the media, or we’re seen in the media as exceeding in all these things as smart. All of us are not by any means. Yeah, I feel like we’re in this weird middle ground.”

–U.S.-born man of Chinese origin in early 20s

“A lot of people believe that Japanese are the most humble and honest people, even among other Asians. I feel like I need to live up to that. I have to try hard when people say things like that. Of course, it is good, but it’s a lot of work sometimes. As Japanese, and for my family, I try hard.”

–Immigrant man of Japanese origin in mid-40s (translated from Japanese)

Others had more positive impressions of the model minority label, saying it made them proud to be Asian and have others see them that way:

“Whenever I apply for any job, in the drop-down there is an option to choose the ethnicity, and I write Asian American proudly because everyone knows us Asians as hardworking, they recognize us as loyal and hardworking.”

–Immigrant woman of Nepalese origin in mid-40s (translated from Nepali)

“I think any model is a good thing. I mean the cognitive, the word ‘model,’ when you model after somebody it’s a positive meaning to it. So personally for me I have no issues with being called the model minority because it only tells me that I’m doing something right.”

–U.S.-born man of Hmong origin in early 40s

• Some of these groups had relatively small sample sizes. For shares of Asian adults who have heard of the term “model minority” and say using the term to describe the U.S. Asian population is a good or bad thing, by education and income, refer to the Appendix . ↩

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Methodology: 2023 focus groups of asian americans, 1 in 10: redefining the asian american dream (short film), the hardships and dreams of asian americans living in poverty, key facts about asian american eligible voters in 2024, most popular, report materials.

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Chapter 4: Economic Growth for Every Generation

On this page:, 4.1 boosting research, innovation, and productivity, 4.2 attracting investment for a net-zero economy, 4.3 growing businesses to create more jobs.

• 4.4 A Strong Workforce for a Strong Economy

Impacts report

Find out more about the expected gender and diversity impacts for each measure in Chapter 4: Economic Growth for Every Generation

To ensure every Canadian succeeds in the 21 st century, we must grow our economy to be more innovative and productive. One where every Canadian can reach their full potential, where every entrepreneur has the tools they need to grow their business, and where hard work pays off. Building the economy of the future is about creating jobs: jobs in the knowledge economy, jobs in manufacturing, jobs in mining and forestry, jobs in the trades, jobs in clean energy, and jobs across the economy, in all regions of the country.

To do this, the government's economic plan is investing in the technologies, incentives, and supports critical to increasing productivity, fostering innovation, and attracting more private investment to Canada. This is how we'll build an economy that unlocks new pathways for every generation to earn their fair share.

The government is targeting investments to make sure Canada continues to lead in the economy of the future, and these are already generating stronger growth and meaningful new job opportunities for Canadians. New jobs—from construction to manufacturing to engineering—in clean technology, in clean energy, and in innovation, are just the start. All of this, helping to attract further investment to create more opportunities, will raise Canada's productivity and competitiveness. This will create more good jobs, and in turn, raise the living standards of all Canadians.

We are at a pivotal moment where we can choose to renew and redouble our investments in the economy of the future, to build an economy that is more productive and more competitive—or risk leaving an entire generation behind. We will not make that mistake. We owe it to our businesses, to our innovators, and most of all, to the upcoming generations of workers, to make sure that the Canadian economy is positioned to thrive in a changing world.

Canada has the best-educated workforce in the world. We are making investments to ensure every generation of workers has the skills the job market, and the global economy, are looking for—and this will help us attract private investment to grow the economy (Chart 4.1). Building on our talented workforce, we are delivering, on a priority basis, our $93 billion suite of major economic investment tax credits to drive growth, secure the future of Canadian businesses in Canada, and create good jobs for generations to come.

In the first three quarters of 2023, Canada had the highest level of foreign direct investment (FDI) on a per capita basis among G7 countries, and ranked third globally in total FDI, after the U.S. and Brazil (Chart 4.2).

The Canadian economy is adding new, high-paying jobs, in high-growth sectors, like clean tech, clean electricity, and scientific research and development (Chart 4.4). Budget 2024 will continue this momentum by making strategic investments that create opportunities for workers today—driving productivity and economic growth for generations to come.

Canada's skilled hands and brilliant minds are our greatest resource. Capitalizing on their ideas, innovations, and hard work is an essential way to keep our place at the forefront of the world's advanced economies. Our world-class innovators, entrepreneurs, scientists, and researchers are solving the most pressing challenges of today, and their discoveries help launch the businesses of tomorrow.

Canadian researchers, entrepreneurs, and companies are the driving force of this progress—from scientific discovery to bringing new solutions to market. They also train and hire younger Canadians who will become the next generation of innovators. New investments to boost research and innovation, including enhancing support for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, will ensure Canada remains a world leader in science and new technologies, like artificial intelligence.

By making strategic investments today in innovation and research, and supporting the recruitment and development of talent in Canada, we can ensure Canada is a world leader in new technologies for the next generation. In turn, this will drive innovation, growth, and productivity across the economy.

Key Ongoing Actions

• Supporting scientific discovery, developing Canadian research talent, and attracting top researchers from around the planet to make Canada their home base for their important work with more than $16 billion committed since 2016.
• Supporting critical emerging sectors, through initiatives like the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the National Quantum Strategy, the Pan-Canadian Genomics Strategy, and the Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy.
• Nearly $2 billion to fuel Canada's Global Innovation Clusters to grow these innovation ecosystems, promote commercialization, support intellectual property creation and retention, and scale Canadian businesses.
• Investing $3.5 billion in the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership to strengthen the innovation, competitiveness, and resiliency of the agriculture and agri-food sector.
• Flowing up to $333 million over the next decade to support dairy sector investments in research, product and market development, and processing capacity for solids non-fat, thus increasing its competitiveness and productivity.

Strengthening Canada's AI Advantage

Canada's artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem is among the best in the world. Since 2017, the government has invested over $2 billion towards AI in Canada. Fuelled by those investments, Canada is globally recognized for strong AI talent, research, and its AI sector.

Today, Canada's AI sector is ranked first in the world for growth of women in AI, and first in the G7 for year-over-year growth of AI talent. Every year since 2019, Canada has published the most AI-related papers, per capita, in the G7. Our AI firms are filing patents at three times the average rate in the G7, and they are attracting nearly a third of all venture capital in Canada. In 2022-23, there were over 140,000 actively engaged AI professionals in Canada, an increase of 29 per cent compared to the previous year. These are just a few of Canada's competitive advantages in AI and we are aiming even higher.

To secure Canada's AI advantage, the government has already:

• Established the first national AI strategy in the world through the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy;
• Supported access to advanced computing capacity, including through the recent signing of a letter of intent with NVIDIA and a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.K. government; and,
• Scaled-up Canadian AI firms through the Strategic Innovation Fund and Global Innovation Clusters program.

AI is a transformative economic opportunity for Canada and the government is committed to doing more to support our world-class research community, launch Canadian AI businesses, and help them scale-up to meet the demands of the global economy. The processing capacity required by AI is accelerating a global push for the latest technology, for the latest computing infrastructure.

Currently, most compute capacity is located in other countries. Challenges accessing compute power slows down AI research and innovation, and also exposes Canadian firms to a reliance on privately-owned computing, outside of Canada. This comes with dependencies and security risks. And, it is a barrier holding back our AI firms and researchers.

We need to break those barriers to stay competitive in the global AI race and ensure workers benefit from the higher wages of AI transformations; we must secure Canada's AI advantage. We also need to ensure workers who fear their jobs may be negatively impacted by AI have the tools and skills training needed in a changing economy.

To secure Canada's AI advantage Budget 2024 announces a monumental increase in targeted AI support of $2.4 billion, including:

• $2 billion over five years, starting in 2024-25, to launch a new AI Compute Access Fund and Canadian AI Sovereign Compute Strategy, to help Canadian researchers, start-ups, and scale-up businesses access the computational power they need to compete and help catalyze the development of Canadian-owned and located AI infrastructure. 
• $200 million over five years, starting in 2024-25, to boost AI start-ups to bring new technologies to market, and accelerate AI adoption in critical sectors, such as agriculture, clean technology, health care, and manufacturing. This support will be delivered through Canada's Regional Development Agencies.
• $100 million over five years, starting in 2024-25, for the National Research Council's AI Assist Program to help Canadian small- and medium-sized businesses and innovators build and deploy new AI solutions, potentially in coordination with major firms, to increase productivity across the country.
• $50 million over four years, starting in 2025-26, to support workers who may be impacted by AI, such as creative industries. This support will be delivered through the Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program, which will provide new skills training for workers in potentially disrupted sectors and communities.

The government will engage with industry partners and research institutes to swiftly implement AI investment initiatives, fostering collaboration and innovation across sectors for accelerated technological advancement.

Safe and Responsible Use of AI

AI has tremendous economic potential, but as with all technology, it presents important considerations to ensure its safe development and implementation. Canada is a global leader in responsible AI and is supporting an AI ecosystem that promotes responsible use of technology. From development through to implementation and beyond, the government is taking action to protect Canadians from the potentially harmful impacts of AI.

The government is committed to guiding AI innovation in a positive direction, and to encouraging the responsible adoption of AI technologies by Canadians and Canadian businesses. To bolster efforts to ensure the responsible use of AI:

• Budget 2024 proposes to provide $50 million over five years, starting in 2024-25, to create an AI Safety Institute of Canada to ensure the safe development and deployment of AI. The AI Safety Institute will help Canada better understand and protect against the risks of advanced and generative AI systems. The government will engage with stakeholders and international partners with competitive AI policies to inform the final design and stand-up of the AI Safety Institute.
• Budget 2024 also proposes to provide $5.1 million in 2025-26 to equip the AI and Data Commissioner Office with the necessary resources to begin enforcing the proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act .
• Budget 2024 proposes $3.5 million over two years, starting in 2024-25, to advance Canada's leadership role with the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, securing Canada's leadership on the global stage when it comes to advancing the responsible development, governance, and use of AI technologies internationally.

Using AI to Keep Canadians Safe

AI has shown incredible potential to toughen up security systems, including screening protocols for air cargo. Since 2012, Transport Canada has been testing innovative approaches to ensure that air cargo coming into Canada is safe, protecting against terrorist attacks. This included launching a pilot project to screen 10 to 15 per cent of air cargo bound for Canada and developing an artificial intelligence system for air cargo screening.

• Budget 2024 proposes to provide $6.7 million over five years, starting in 2024-25, to Transport Canada to establish the Pre-Load Air Cargo Targeting Program to screen 100 per cent of air cargo bound for Canada. This program, powered by cutting-edge artificial intelligence, will increase security and efficiency, and align Canada's air security regime with those of its international partners.

Incentivizing More Innovation and Productivity

Businesses that invest in cutting-edge technologies are a key driver of Canada's economic growth. When businesses make investments in technology—from developing new patents to implementing new IT systems—it helps ensure Canadian workers put their skills and knowledge to use, improves workplaces, and maximizes our workers' potential and Canada's economic growth.

The government wants to encourage Canadian businesses to invest in the capital—both tangible and intangible—that will help them boost productivity and compete productively in the economy of tomorrow.

• To incentivize investment in innovation-enabling and productivity-enhancing assets, Budget 2024 proposes to allow businesses to immediately write off the full cost of investments in patents, data network infrastructure equipment, computers, and other data processing equipment. Eligible investments, as specified in the relevant capital cost allowance classes, must be acquired and put in use on or after Budget Day and before January 1, 2027. The cost of this measure is estimated at $725 million over five years, starting in 2024-25.

Boosting R&D and Intellectual Property Retention

Research and development (R&D) is a key driver of productivity and growth. Made-in-Canada innovations meaningfully increase our gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, create good-paying jobs, and secure Canada's position as a world-leading advanced economy.

To modernize and improve the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax incentives, the federal government launched consultations on January 31, 2024, to explore cost-neutral ways to enhance the program to better support innovative businesses and drive economic growth. In these consultations, which closed on April 15, 2024, the government asked Canadian researchers and innovators for ways to better deliver SR&ED support to small- and medium-sized Canadian businesses and enable the next generation of innovators to scale-up, create jobs, and grow the economy.

• Budget 2024 announces the government is launching a second phase of consultations on more specific policy parameters, to hear further views from businesses and industry on specific and technical reforms. This includes exploring how Canadian public companies could be made eligible for the enhanced credit. Further details on the consultation process will be released shortly on the Department of Finance Canada website.
• Budget 2024 proposes to provide $600 million over four years, starting in 2025-26, with $150 million per year ongoing for future enhancements to the SR&ED program. The second phase of consultations will inform how this funding could be targeted to boost research and innovation.

On January 31, 2024, the government also launched consultations on creating a patent box regime to encourage the development and retention of intellectual property in Canada. The patent box consultation closed on April 15, 2024. Submissions received through this process, which are still under review, will help inform future government decisions with respect to a patent box regime.

Enhancing Research Support

Since 2016, the federal government has committed more than $16 billion in research, including funding for the federal granting councils—the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

This research support enables groundbreaking discoveries in areas such as climate change, health emergencies, artificial intelligence, and psychological health. This plays a critical role in solving the world's greatest challenges, those that will have impacts for generations.

Canada's granting councils already do excellent work within their areas of expertise, but more needs to be done to maximize their effect. The improvements we are making today, following extensive consultations including with the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System, will strengthen and modernize Canada's federal research support.

• To increase core research grant funding and support Canadian researchers, Budget 2024 proposes to provide $1.8 billion over five years, starting in 2024-25, with $748.3 million per year ongoing to SSHRC, NSERC, and CIHR.
• To provide better coordination across the federally funded research ecosystem, Budget 2024 announces the government will create a new capstone research funding organization. The granting councils will continue to exist within this new organization, and continue supporting excellence in investigator-driven research, including linkages with the Health portfolio. This new organization and structure will also help to advance internationally collaborative, multi-disciplinary, and mission-driven research. The government is delivering on the Advisory Panel's observation that more coordination is needed to maximize the impact of federal research support across Canada's research ecosystem.
• To help guide research priorities moving forward, Budget 2024 also announces the government will create an advisory Council on Science and Innovation. This Council will be made up of leaders from the academic, industry, and not-for-profit sectors, and be responsible for a national science and innovation strategy to guide priority setting and increase the impact of these significant federal investments.
• Budget 2024 also proposes to provide a further $26.9 million over five years, starting in 2024-25, with $26.6 million in remaining amortization and $6.6 million ongoing, to the granting councils to establish an improved and harmonized grant management system.

The government will also work with other key players in the research funding system—the provinces, territories, and Canadian industry—to ensure stronger alignment, and greater co-funding to address important challenges, notably Canada's relatively low level of business R&D investment.

More details on these important modernization efforts will be announced in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement.

World-Leading Research Infrastructure

Modern, high-quality research facilities and infrastructure are essential for breakthroughs in Canadian research and science. These laboratories and research centres are where medical and other scientific breakthroughs are born, helping to solve real-world problems and create the economic opportunities of the future. World-leading research facilities will attract and train the next generation of scientific talent. That's why, since 2015, the federal government has made unprecedented investments in science and technology, at an average of $13.6 billion per year, compared to the average from 2009-10 to 2015-16 of just $10.8 billion per year. But we can't stop here.

To advance the next generation of cutting-edge research, Budget 2024 proposes major research and science infrastructure investments, including:

• $399.8 million over five years, starting in 2025-26, to support TRIUMF, Canada's sub-atomic physics research laboratory, located on the University of British Columbia's Vancouver campus. This investment will upgrade infrastructure at the world's largest cyclotron particle accelerator, positioning TRIUMF, and the partnering Canadian research universities, at the forefront of physics research and enabling new medical breakthroughs and treatments, from drug development to cancer therapy.
• $176 million over five years, starting in 2025‑26, to CANARIE, a national not-for-profit organization that manages Canada's ultra high-speed network to connect researchers, educators, and innovators, including through eduroam. With network speeds hundreds of times faster, and more secure, than conventional home and office networks, this investment will ensure this critical infrastructure can connect researchers across Canada's world-leading post-secondary institutions.
• $83.5 million over three years, starting in 2026-27 to extend support to Canadian Light Source in Saskatoon. Funding will continue the important work at the only facility of its kind in Canada. A synchrotron light source allows scientists and researchers to examine the microscopic nature of matter. This specialized infrastructure contributes to breakthroughs in areas ranging from climate-resistant crop development to green mining processes.
• $45.5 million over five years, starting in 2024-25, to support the Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute, a network of universities and institutes that coordinate astroparticle physics expertise. Headquartered at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, the institute builds on the legacy of Dr. McDonald's 2015 Nobel Prize for his work on neutrino physics. These expert engineers, technicians, and scientists design, construct, and operate the experiments conducted in Canada's underground and underwater research infrastructure, where research into dark matter and other mysterious particles thrives. This supports innovation in areas like clean technology and medical imaging, and educates and inspires the next wave of Canadian talent.
• $30 million over three years, starting in 2024-25, to support the completion of the University of Saskatchewan's Centre for Pandemic Research at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Saskatoon. This investment will enable the study of high-risk pathogens to support vaccine and therapeutic development, a key pillar in Canada's Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy. Of this amount, $3 million would be sourced from the existing resources of Prairies Economic Development Canada.

These new investments build on existing federal research support:

• The Strategic Science Fund, which announced the results of its first competition in December 2023, providing support to 24 third-party science and research organizations starting in 2024-25;
• Canada recently concluded negotiations to be an associate member of Horizon Europe, which would enable Canadians to access a broader range of research opportunities under the European program starting this year; and,
• The steady increase in federal funding for extramural and intramural science and technology by the government which was 44 per cent higher in 2023 relative to 2015.

Investing in Homegrown Research Talent

Canada's student and postgraduate researchers are tackling some of the world's biggest challenges. The solutions they come up with have the potential to make the world a better place and drive Canadian prosperity. They are the future Canadian academic and scientific excellence, who will create new innovative businesses, develop new ways to boost productivity, and create jobs as they scale-up companies—if they get the support they need.

To build a world-leading, innovative economy, and improve our productive capacity, the hard work of top talent must pay off; we must incentivize our top talent to stay here.

Federal support for master's, doctoral, and post-doctoral students and fellows has created new research opportunities for the next generation of scientific talent. Opportunities to conduct world-leading research are critical for growing our economy. In the knowledge economy, the global market for these ideas is highly competitive and we need to make sure talented people have the right incentives to do their groundbreaking research here in Canada.

• To foster the next generation of research talent, Budget 2024 proposes to provide $825 million over five years, starting in 2024-25, with $199.8 million per year ongoing, to increase the annual value of master's and doctoral student scholarships to $27,000 and $40,000, respectively, and post-doctoral fellowships to $70,000. This will also increase the number of research scholarships and fellowships provided, building to approximately 1,720 more graduate students or fellows benefiting each year. To make it easier for students and fellows to access support, the enhanced suite of scholarships and fellowship programs will be streamlined into one talent program.
• To support Indigenous researchers and their communities, Budget 2024 also proposes to provide $30 million over three years, starting in 2024-25, to support Indigenous participation in research, with $10 million each for First Nation, Métis, and Inuit partners.

Boosting Talent for Innovation

Advanced technology development is a highly competitive industry and there is a global race to attract talent and innovative businesses. Canada must compete to ensure our economy is at the forefront of global innovation.

To spur rapid growth in innovation across Canada's economy, the government is partnering with organizations whose mission it is to train the next generation of innovators. This will ensure innovative businesses have the talent they need to grow, create jobs at home, and drive Canada's economic growth.

• Budget 2024 announces the government's intention to work with Talent for Innovation Canada to develop a pilot initiative to build an exceptional research and development workforce in Canada. This industry-led pilot will focus on attracting, training, and deploying top talent across four key sectors: bio-manufacturing; clean technology; electric vehicle manufacturing; and microelectronics, including semiconductors.

Advancing Space Research and Exploration

Canada is a leader in cutting-edge innovation and technologies for space research and exploration. Our astronauts make great contributions to international space exploration missions. The government is investing in Canada's space research and exploration activities.

• Budget 2024 proposes to provide $8.6 million in 2024-25 to the Canadian Space Agency for the Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program to support Canada's world-class space industry and help accelerate the development of new technologies. This initiative empowers Canada to leverage space to solve everyday challenges, such as enhancing remote health care services and improving access to healthy food in remote communities, while also supporting Canada's human space flight program.
• Budget 2024 announces the establishment of a new whole-of-government approach to space exploration, technology development, and research. The new National Space Council will enable the level of collaboration required to secure Canada's future as a leader in the global space race, addressing cross-cutting issues that span commercial, civil, and defence domains. This will also enable the government to leverage Canada's space industrial base with its world-class capabilities, workforce, and track record of innovation and delivery.

Accelerating Clean Tech Intellectual Property Creation and Retention

Canadian clean technology companies are turning their ideas into the solutions that the world is looking for as it races towards net-zero. Encouraging these innovative companies to maintain operations in Canada and retain ownership of their intellectual property secures the future of their workforce in Canada, helping the clean economy to thrive in Canada.

As part of the government's National Intellectual Property Strategy, the not-for-profit organization Innovation Asset Collective launched the patent collective pilot program in 2020. This pilot program is helping innovative small- and medium-sized enterprises in the clean tech sector with the creation and retention of intellectual property.

• To ensure that small- and medium-sized clean tech businesses benefit from specialized intellectual property support to grow their businesses and leverage intellectual property, Budget 2024 proposes to provide $14.5 million over two years, starting in 2024-25, to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada for the Innovation Asset Collective.

Find out more about the expected gender and diversity impacts for each measure in section 4.1 Boosting Research, Innovation, and Productivity

In the 21 st century, a competitive economy is a clean economy. There is no greater proof than the $2.4 trillion worth of investment made around the world, last year, in net-zero economies. Canada is at the forefront of the global race to attract investment and seize the opportunities of the clean economy, with the government announcing a net-zero economic plan that will invest over $160 billion. This includes an unprecedented suite of major economic investment tax credits, which will help attract investment through $93 billion in incentives by 2034-35.

All told, the government's investments will crowd in more private investment, securing Canadian leadership in clean electricity and innovation, creating economic growth and more good-paying jobs across the country.

Investors at home and around the world are taking notice of Canada's plan. In defiance of global economic headwinds, last year public markets and private equity capital flows into Canada's net-zero economy grew—reaching $14 billion in 2023, according to RBC. Proof that Canada's investments are working—driving new businesses to take shape, creating good jobs, and making sure that we have clean air and clean water for our kids, grandkids, and for generations to come.

Earlier this year, BloombergNEF ranked Canada's attractiveness to build electric vehicle (EV) battery supply chains first in the world, surpassing China which has held the top spot since the ranking began. From resource workers mining the critical minerals for car batteries, to union workers on auto assembly lines, to the truckers that get cars to dealerships, Canada's advantage in the supply chain is creating high-skilled, good-paying jobs across the country, for workers of all ages.

This first place ranking of Canada's EV supply chains is underpinned by our abundant clean energy, high labour standards, and rigorous standards for consultation and engagement with Indigenous communities. That's what Canada's major economic investment tax credits are doing—seizing Canada's full potential, and doing it right.

By 2050, clean energy GDP could grow fivefold—up to $500 billion, while keeping Canada on track to reach net-zero by 2050. Proof, once again, that good climate policy is good economic policy.

Helping innovative Canadian firms scale-up is essential to increasing the pace of economic growth in Canada. Already, the Cleantech Group's 2023 list of the 100 most innovative global clean technology companies featured 12 Canadian companies, the second highest number of any country, behind only the U.S. The government is investing in clean technology companies to ensure their full capabilities are unlocked.

Budget 2024 announces the next steps in the government's plan to attract even more investment to Canada to create good-paying jobs and accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy and clean technology.

• Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage investment tax credit;
• Clean Technology investment tax credit;
• Clean Hydrogen investment tax credit;
• Clean Technology Manufacturing investment tax credit; and
• Clean Electricity investment tax credit.
• Since the federal government launched the Canada Growth Fund last year, $1.34 billion of capital has been committed to a world-leading geothermal energy technology company, the world's first of its kind carbon contract for difference; and to clean tech entrepreneurs and innovators through a leading Canadian-based climate fund.
• Working with industry, provinces, and Indigenous partners to build an end-to-end electric vehicle battery supply chain, including by securing major investments in 2023.
• Building major clean electricity and clean growth infrastructure projects with investments of at least $20 billion from the Canada Infrastructure Bank.
• $3.8 billion for Canada's Critical Minerals Strategy, to secure our position as the world's supplier of choice for critical minerals and the clean technologies they enable.
• $3 billion to recapitalize the Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways Program, which builds more clean, affordable, and reliable power, and to support innovation in electricity grids and spur more investments in Canadian offshore wind.

A New EV Supply Chain Investment Tax Credit

The automotive industry is undergoing a major transformation. As more and more electric vehicles are being produced worldwide, it is essential that Canada's automotive industry has the support it needs to retool its assembly lines and build new factories to seize the opportunities of the global switch to electric vehicles. With our world-class natural resource base, talented workforce, and attractive investment climate, Canada will be an electric vehicle supply chain hub for all steps along the manufacturing process. This is an opportunity for Canada to secure its position today at the forefront of this growing global supply chain and secure high-quality jobs for Canadian workers for a generation to come.

Businesses that manufacture electric vehicles and their precursors would already be able to claim the 30 per cent Clean Technology Manufacturing investment tax credit on the cost of their investments in new machinery and equipment, as announced in Budget 2023. Providing additional support to these businesses so they choose Canada for more than one stage in the manufacturing process would secure more jobs for Canadians and help cement Canada's position as a leader in this sector.

• electric vehicle assembly;
• electric vehicle battery production; and,
• cathode active material production.

For a taxpayer's building costs in any of the specified segments to qualify for the tax credit, the taxpayer (or a member of a group of related taxpayers) must claim the Clean Technology Manufacturing investment tax credit in all three of the specified segments, or two of the three specified segments and hold at least a qualifying minority interest in an unrelated corporation that claims the Clean Technology Manufacturing tax credit in the third segment. The building costs of the unrelated corporation would also qualify for the new investment tax credit.

The EV Supply Chain investment tax credit would apply to property that is acquired and becomes available for use on or after January 1, 2024. The credit would be reduced to 5 per cent for 2033 and 2034, and would no longer be in effect after 2034.

The EV Supply Chain investment tax credit is expected to cost $80 million over five years, starting in 2024-25, and an additional $1.02 billion from 2029-30 to 2034-35.

The design and implementation details of the EV Supply Chain investment tax credit will be provided in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement . Its design would incorporate elements of the Clean Technology Manufacturing investment tax credit, where applicable.

Delivering Major Economic Investment Tax Credits

To seize the investment opportunities of the global clean economy, we are delivering our six major economic investment tax credits. These will provide businesses and other investors with the certainty they need to invest and build in Canada. And they are already attracting major, job-creating projects, ensuring we remain globally competitive.

From new clean electricity projects that will provide clean and affordable energy to Canadian homes and businesses, to carbon capture projects that will decarbonize heavy industry, our major economic investment tax credits are moving Canada forward on its track to achieve a net-zero economy by 2050.

In November 2023, the government introduced Bill C-59 to deliver the first two investment tax credits and provide businesses with the certainty they need to make investment decisions in Canada today. Bill C-59 also includes labour requirements to ensure workers are paid prevailing union wages and apprentices have opportunities to gain experience and succeed in the workforce. With the support and collaboration of Parliamentarians, the government anticipates Bill C-59 receiving Royal Assent before June 1, 2024.

• Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage investment tax credit: would be available as of January 1, 2022;
• Clean Technology investment tax credit: would be available as of March 28, 2023; and,
• Clean Hydrogen investment tax credit; and,

The government will soon introduce legislation to deliver the next two investment tax credits:

• Clean Hydrogen investment tax credit: available as of March 28, 2023; and,
• Clean Technology Manufacturing investment tax credit: available as of January 1, 2024.

As a priority, the government will work on introducing legislation for the remaining investment tax credits, including the new EV Supply Chain investment tax credit, as well as proposed expansions and enhancements:

• Clean Electricity investment tax credit: would be available as of the day of Budget 2024, for projects that did not begin construction before March 28, 2023;
• The expansion of the Clean Technology investment tax credit would be available as of November 21, 2023; and,
• The expansion of the Clean Electricity investment tax credit would be available from the day of Budget 2024, for projects that did not begin construction before March 28, 2023.
• Clean Technology Manufacturing investment tax credit enhancements to provide new clarity and improve access for critical minerals projects. Draft legislation will be released for consultation in summer 2024 and the government targets introducing legislation in fall 2024.
• The EV Supply Chain investment tax credit : would be available as of January 1, 2024.

Given that the major economic investment tax credits will be available, including retroactively, from their respective coming into force dates, businesses are already taking action to break ground on projects that will reduce emissions, create jobs, and grow the economy. Passing the major economic investment tax credits into law will secure a cleaner, more prosperous future for Canadians today, and tomorrow.

Implementing the Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit

As the economy grows, Canada's electricity demand is expected to double by 2050 (Chart 4.7). To meet this increased demand with a clean, reliable, and affordable grid, our electricity capacity must increase by 1.7 to 2.2 times compared to current levels (Chart 4.8). Investing in clean electricity today will reduce Canadians' monthly energy costs by 12 per cent (Chart 4.9) and create approximately 250,000 good jobs by 2050 (Chart 4.10).

Canada already has one of the cleanest electricity grids in the world, with 84 per cent of electricity produced by non-emitting sources of generation. Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Yukon are already clean electricity leaders and generate nearly all of their electricity from non-emitting hydropower—and have more untapped clean electricity potential. Other regions of Canada will require major investments to ensure clean, reliable electricity grids, and the federal government is stepping up to support provinces and territories with these investments.

In Budget 2023, the government announced the new Clean Electricity investment tax credit to deliver broad-based support to implement clean electricity technologies and accelerate progress towards a Canada-wide net-zero electricity grid.

• Low-emitting electricity generation systems using energy from wind, solar, water, geothermal, waste biomass, nuclear, or natural gas with carbon capture and storage.
• Stationary electricity storage systems that do not use fossil fuels in operation, such as batteries and pumped hydroelectric storage.
• Transmission of electricity between provinces and territories.
• The Clean Electricity investment tax credit would be available to certain taxable and non-taxable corporations, including corporations owned by municipalities or Indigenous communities, and pension investment corporations.
• Provided that a provincial and territorial government satisfies additional conditions, outlined below, the tax credit would also be available to provincial and territorial Crown corporations investing in that province or territory.
• Robust labour requirements to pay prevailing union wages and create apprenticeship opportunities will need to be met to receive the full 15 per cent tax credit.

The Clean Electricity investment tax credit is expected to cost $7.2 billion over five years starting in 2024-25, and an additional $25 billion from 2029-30 to 2034-35.

The Clean Electricity investment tax credit would apply to property that is acquired and becomes available for use on or after the day of Budget 2024 for projects that did not begin construction before March 28, 2023. The credit would no longer be in effect after 2034. Similar rules would apply for provincial and territorial Crown corporations, with modifications outlined below.

Provincial and Territorial Crown Corporations

The federal government is proposing that, for provincial and territorial Crown corporations to access to the Clean Electricity investment tax credit within a jurisdiction, the government of that province or territory would need to:

• Work towards a net-zero electricity grid by 2035; and,
• Provincial and territorial Crown corporations passing through the value of the Clean Electricity investment tax credit to electricity ratepayers in their province or territory to reduce ratepayers' bills.
• Direct provincial and territorial Crown corporations claiming the credit to publicly report, on an annual basis, on how the tax credit has improved ratepayers' bills.

If a provincial or territorial government satisfies all the conditions by March 31, 2025, then provincial or territorial Crown corporations investing in that jurisdiction would be able to access the Clean Electricity investment tax credit for property that is acquired and becomes available for use on or after the day of Budget 2024 for projects that did not begin construction before March 28, 2023.

If a provincial or territorial government does not satisfy all the conditions by March 31, 2025, then provincial or territorial Crown corporations investing in that jurisdiction would not be able to access the Clean Electricity investment tax credit until all the conditions have been satisfied. In this case, the Clean Electricity investment tax credit would apply to property that is acquired and becomes available for use from the date when the conditions are deemed to have been satisfied for projects that did not begin construction before March 28, 2023.

The Department of Finance Canada will consult with provinces and territories on the details of these conditions before legislation is introduced this fall.

Additional design and implementation details for the tax credit can be found in the Budget Tax Measures Supplementary Information, under "Clean Electricity investment tax credit."

Delivering Clean Electricity with Indigenous, Northern, and Remote Communities

The government has announced significant measures to advance clean electricity projects nationwide. These initiatives include the Clean Electricity investment tax credit, the Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways Program, and strategic financing through the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Understanding the energy goals and challenges in Indigenous, Northern, and remote communities—such as moving away from diesel—the government has offered unique assistance for projects in these areas, including for planning and feasibility stages. Recent federal investments to support projects with these communities include:

• Up to $535 million in Canada Infrastructure Bank financing and $50 million in funding from the Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways Program for the 250-MW Oneida Energy storage project in Ontario, which is the largest battery storage project in the country.
• $173 million in Canada Infrastructure Bank financing and $50 million in funding from the Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways Program for the Bekevar Wind Power project, an Indigenous-led wind power project in Saskatchewan.
• $14.4 million in funding to explore the feasibility of the Kivalliq Hydro Fibre Link, an innovative project that would connect northern Manitoba to southeastern Nunavut to provide electricity and internet access to five communities and one existing mine, helping to transition Northern communities off of diesel and connect them to the rest of Canada.
• $9 million in funding from the Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways Program for the Salay Prayzaan Solar project, which is 100 per cent owned by the Métis Nation of Alberta.

Implementing the Major Economic Investment Tax Credits

The government's suite of major economic investment incentives is unprecedented in Canadian history, and the government is delivering these supports on a priority basis to attract investment, create good-paying jobs, and grow the economy, while continuing to make progress in the fight against climate change.

To deliver the major economic investment tax credits, without delay, the government is boosting resources to the Canada Revenue Agency, Natural Resources Canada, and the Department of Finance Canada, which each have a role to play in delivering these support measures. To this end:

• Budget 2024 proposes to provide the Canada Revenue Agency up to $90.9 million over 11 years, starting in 2024-25, to administer the new major economic investment tax credits.
• Budget 2024 proposes to provide Natural Resources Canada $7.4 million over five years, starting in 2024-25, to provide expert technical advice on engineering and scientific matters related to the major economic investment tax credits and to support the administration of certain investment tax credits with the Canada Revenue Agency.
• Budget 2024 proposes to provide the Department of Finance Canada $21.4 million over 11 years, starting in 2024-25, to complete the implementation, including legislation, of the major economic investment tax credits, ensure ongoing evaluation and response to emerging issues, and propose appropriate legislative amendments to the Income Tax Act and Income Tax Regulations .

The Canada Growth Fund

The Canada Growth Fund is a $15 billion arm's length public investment vehicle launched by the federal government to attract private capital and invest in Canadian projects and businesses, which is led by Canada's world-leading public sector pension professionals. The Canada Growth Fund investments in clean energy and clean technology are already building Canada's strong, clean economy and creating good-paying jobs across the country:

• On October 25, 2023, the Canada Growth Fund made its first investment—a $90 million investment in a groundbreaking geothermal energy company, Calgary's Eavor Technologies Inc., that is creating meaningful employment opportunities for Albertans and securing the Canadian future of a company at the leading-edge of the global economy. 
• The Canada Growth Fund's second investment was announced on December 20, 2023—a $200 million direct investment, plus complementary carbon contract offtake agreement, in a world-leading carbon capture and sequestration company, Calgary's Entropy Inc. to support the reduction of up to one million tonnes of carbon per year. This major investment will support 1,200 good jobs for Albertans and grow the company's Canadian-based activities.
• The Canada Growth Fund's third investment was announced on March 25, 2024—a $50 million commitment into the Idealist Climate Impact Fund, a clean tech investment fund led by the Montréal-based Idealist Capital. The clean tech fund will manage equity investments into innovative entrepreneurs and businesses that are creating good-paying jobs and accelerating the energy transition.

Carbon Contracts for Difference

A price on pollution is the foundation of Canada's plan to build a prosperous net-zero economy. It is a system that is fair and that promotes market-driven solutions. The government recognizes the substantial demand from industry and other stakeholders for carbon contracts for difference (CCFDs) as a tool to accelerate investment in decarbonization and clean growth technologies by providing certainty around carbon pricing.

The 2023 Fall Economic Statement announced that the Canada Growth Fund will be the principal federal entity to issue CCFDs, including allocating, on a priority basis, up to $7 billion to issue all forms of contracts for difference and offtake agreements. The Canada Growth Fund is fulfilling this important role as a federal issuer of CCFDs. Building on its initial success, the Canada Growth Fund is assessing the opportunity to expand its carbon contract offerings and is developing approaches that can best serve the different carbon credit markets across Canada:

• Budget 2024 announces that the Canada Growth Fund is developing an expanded range of CCFD offerings tailored to different markets and their unique risks and opportunities. The Canada Growth Fund will continue offering bespoke CCFDs and carbon offtake agreements, with a focus on provinces contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions reductions.
• Building on the insights gained from these transactions, Budget 2024 announces the Canada Growth Fund will explore ways to broaden its approach, for example, by developing off-the-shelf contracts for certain jurisdictions and ways to offer these contracts on a competitive basis for a set amount of emissions reductions.
• The Canada Growth Fund has around $6 billion remaining to continue issuing, on a priority basis, all forms of CCFDs and carbon offtake agreements. Budget 2024 announces the government will ensure that the Canada Growth Fund continues to have the resources it needs to fulfill its role as federal issuer of CCFDs. The government is also evaluating options to enhance the Canada Growth Fund's capacity to offer CCFDs, including by exploring the possibility of a government backstop of certain CCFD liabilities of the Canada Growth Fund.

CCFDs can help develop robust carbon credit markets, and the federal government has taken action to ensure their success. For example, in 2022, Environment and Climate Change Canada worked with Alberta to ensure that their TIER market was sufficiently stringent so that the projected demand for carbon credits exceeded projected supply, ensuring robust credit demand even as more major decarbonization projects get built and more credits are generated.

Credit markets are largely the responsibility of provinces, and there are opportunities to improve how these markets function. For example, commitments to maintain their industrial carbon pricing systems over the long-term, tighten the stringency of systems as necessary to avoid an oversupply of credits, publishing the price of carbon credits, and recommitting to maintain a price signal of $170 per tonne by 2030 could help improve carbon price expectations for investors. Increased credit price transparency would greatly improve market functioning and provide greater investment certainty, unlocking more decarbonization projects. It would also facilitate the Canada Growth Fund's efforts to develop off-the-shelf CCFDs and deliver more deals, much quicker across provincial carbon markets.

• Budget 2024 announces that Environment and Climate Change Canada will work with provinces and territories to improve the functioning of carbon credit markets, in order to help unlock additional decarbonization projects throughout Canada.

Getting Major Projects Done

Putting Canada on a path to net-zero requires significant and sustained private sector investment in clean electricity, critical minerals, and other major projects. For these investments to be made, Canada's regulatory system must be efficient and quicker—it shouldn't take over a decade to open a new mine and secure our critical minerals supply chains.

To that end, Budget 2023 announced an intention to develop a plan to improve the efficiency of the impact assessment and permitting processes for major projects. The Ministerial Working Group on Regulatory Efficiency for Clean Growth Projects was launched to coordinate this work, and drive positive, pro-growth culture change throughout government, to ensure major project approvals come quicker. New major projects create thousands of new, good-paying jobs for Canadians, and the government is focused on getting more done.

• Provide $9 million over three years, starting in 2024-25, to the Privy Council Office's Clean Growth Office to implement the recommendations of the Ministerial Working Group and reduce interdepartmental inefficiencies, including preventing fixation on well-studied and low-risk impacts, ensuring new permitting timelines are upheld throughout departments, and improving data sharing between departments to reduce redundant studies.
• Launch work to establish a new Federal Permitting Coordinator within the Privy Council Office's Clean Growth Office.
• Set a target of five years or less to complete federal impact assessment and permitting processes for federally designated projects, and a target of two years or less for permitting of non-federally designated projects;
• Issue a Cabinet Directive to drive culture change , achieve new targets, and set out clear federal roles and responsibilities within and across departments with the objective of getting clean growth projects built in a timely and predictable manner;
• Build a Federal Permitting Dashboard that reports on the status of large projects which require permits, to improve predictability for project proponents, and increase the federal government's transparency and accountability to Canadians; and,
• Set a three-year target for nuclear project reviews , by working with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, and consider how the process can be better streamlined and duplications reduced between the two agencies.
• Amend the Impact Assessment Act to respond to the October 2023 Supreme Court of Canada decision that ruled that elements of the Act are unconstitutional. The proposed amendments will ensure the Act is constitutionally sound, facilitating efficient project reviews while advancing Canada's clean growth and protecting the environment. An amended Act will provide certainty for businesses and investors through measures that include increasing flexibility in substitution of assessments to allow for collaboration and avoid interjurisdictional duplication, clarifying when joint federal-provincial review panels are possible, and allowing for earlier Agency screening decisions as to whether a full impact assessment is required after the Planning phase. The amended Act will remain consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act ;
• Enhance coordination across orders of government using the tools available under the Impact Assessment Act and permitting coordination mechanisms, to reduce duplication and minimize the burden of regulatory processes on project proponents and Indigenous groups; and,
• Engage Northern Premiers, Indigenous communities, industry, and other partners to discuss transformative changes to their unique project review frameworks, to ensure the North is also prepared to assess and build clean growth projects.
• Advance Indigenous participation in major projects, through the Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program detailed in Chapter 6, which will provide more opportunities for Indigenous communities to benefit from the significant number of natural resource and energy projects proposed to take place in their territories;
• Work to establish a Crown Consultation Coordinator to ensure efficient and meaningful Crown consultation with Indigenous peoples on the issuance of federal regulatory permits to projects that do not undergo federal impact assessments. The government will consult First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and Modern Treaty and Self-Governing Indigenous partners on the design of the Crown Consultation Coordinator. The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada will continue to be the Crown consultation body for all federal decisions related to projects that undergo federal impact assessments; and,
• Improve Indigenous capacity for consultation by advancing the co-development and implementation of consultation protocol agreements and resource centres, led by Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada.

More details on the Ministerial Working Group's recommendations will be published in an Action Plan in spring 2024. Additionally, further analysis of opportunities for improving the efficiency of the impact assessment process will be undertaken as part of the five-year review of the Impact Assessment Act's designated project list, which will occur later this year, following coming into force of the amended Act. This review will be undertaken in consultation with the public, including with Indigenous partners.

Getting major projects built means more jobs, in more regions across Canada, and more opportunities for the next generation of workers.

Securing the Canadian Biofuels Industry

Biofuels and biogas are renewable energy sources sustainably made from plants or biowaste, such as canola crops and landfill emissions. Not only do they generate fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuels, they also represent a unique opportunity for the Canadian economy. The industry supports agriculture and forestry jobs and can help decarbonize key sectors like marine, aviation, rail, and heavy industry. Canada's Clean Fuel Regulations , in place since 2022, are helping drive the production and adoption of specific biofuels in Canada.

The government is proposing new measures to support biofuels production in Canada, with a focus on renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel, and renewable natural gas, aiming to capitalize on the increasing demand for these fuels and strengthen Canada's position in the market. Budget 2024 announces:

• The government's intention to disburse up to $500 million per year from Clean Fuel Regulations compliance payment revenues to support biofuels production in Canada, subject to sufficient compliance payments being made to the federal government. More details will be announced in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement .
• The government will also retool the Clean Fuels Fund to deliver funding faster, and extend the Fund for an additional four years, until 2029-30. With reprofiled funding proposed through this extension, a total of $776.3 million will be available to be deployed from 2024-25 to 2029-30 to support clean fuel projects. The program will shift to a continuous intake process, and streamlined negotiations and decision-making processes will expedite delivery. By the end of this year, Natural Resources Canada will launch another call for proposals under the extended Clean Fuels Fund.
• The Canada Infrastructure Bank will invest at least $500 million in biofuels production under its green infrastructure investment stream.

Advancing Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Research, and Environmental Remediation

Non-emitting, nuclear energy is one of the key tools in helping the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Canada stands out as one of the few countries to have developed and deployed its own nuclear technology, the CANDU. And the robust Canadian supply chains built around CANDU not only generate high-skilled jobs and foster research and development but also play a role in creating affordable and clean electricity. Canada's nuclear sector also produces medical isotopes essential for radiation therapy and diagnosing heart disease.

Canada is a Global Nuclear Energy Leader

Over the last few years, the government has announced significant investments and action to advance nuclear energy:

Large Reactors:

• Canada has committed up to $3 billion in export financing to Romania to support the construction of two new CANDU reactors, reducing Romania's reliance on Russian energy while boosting their own energy security and their neighbours', all while supporting Canadian jobs. Canadian supply chains will participate in the construction and maintenance of these reactors over their multi-decade operating life.
• The government announced $50 million in funding to support Bruce Power's large nuclear expansion.

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs):

• The Canada Infrastructure Bank announced a $970 million investment to support Ontario Power Generation in building the first grid-scale SMR among G7 nations at Darlington.
• The Strategic Innovation Fund has committed $94.7 million to accelerate the development of three different next generation SMR designs.
• The government announced $74 million in funding to support SaskPower's SMR development.
• The government announced $120.6 million to enable the deployment of SMRs through various activities such as building regulatory capacity.

Major Economic Investment Tax Credits:

• The Clean Electricity and Clean Technology Manufacturing investment tax credits announced in Budget 2023 would support investments in nuclear electricity generation, nuclear power supply chains, and nuclear fuel production, which are part of the solution for a clean economy transition.

 Sustainable Finance:

• The government updated its Green Bond Framework to make certain nuclear energy expenditures eligible.

Budget 2024 is announcing new measures to help get nuclear projects built in a timely, predictable, and responsible fashion.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories conducts nuclear science research that helps advance clean energy and medical technologies, as well as environmental remediation and waste management of historic nuclear sites. This work is overseen by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, a Crown corporation responsible for enabling nuclear science and technology and ensuring environmental protection at nuclear sites.

• Budget 2024 proposes to provide $3.1 billion over 11 years, starting in 2025-26, with $1.5 billion in remaining amortization, to Atomic Energy of Canada Limited to support Canadian Nuclear Laboratories' ongoing nuclear science research, environmental protection, and site remediation work.

Canada-U.S. Energy Transformation Task Force

On March 24, 2023, the Canada-U.S. Energy Transformation Task Force was launched by Prime Minister Trudeau and President Biden, as a one-year joint initiative to support our collective energy security and economic growth as we transition to a clean energy future. Canada is pleased to announce the renewal of the Energy Transformation Task Force for an additional year.

Since its creation, the Energy Transformation Task Force has driven significant progress towards more secure and resilient Canada-U.S. supply chains for critical minerals, nuclear fuels, and green steel and aluminum.

Canada is a global leader in the supply of responsibly sourced critical minerals. The government is investing $3.8 billion through the Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy to further develop Canadian value chains for critical minerals needed for our green and digital economy, including the new Critical Mineral Exploration Tax Credit. The Strategy will be further enabled by enhancements to the Clean Technology Manufacturing investment tax credit, and Canada's new Electric Vehicle Supply Chain investment tax credit.

Canada is building on our strong partnership with the U.S. on critical minerals, underpinned by the Canada-U.S. Joint Action Plan on Critical Minerals Collaboration. Under the Energy Transformation Task Force, we have redoubled efforts to address issues of mutual concern such as bolstering supply security for critical minerals. Our government will continue to work in close collaboration with industry partners and our allies to support cross-border priority critical mineral projects that advance our shared interests.

Nuclear energy will play a key role in achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Canada is a Tier-1 nuclear nation with over 70 years of technological leadership, including our own national reactor technology, and a strong domestic supply chain that includes the world's largest deposit of high-grade natural uranium. Our government is taking action to support the growth of nuclear energy, including through the Clean Electricity investment tax credit, the Clean Technology Manufacturing investment tax credit, the Strategic Innovation Fund, the Canada Infrastructure Bank, and an updated Green Bond Framework that includes certain nuclear expenditures.

At COP28, the government and likeminded partners reaffirmed their commitment to triple nuclear energy capacity and promote public-private investment to strengthen supply chains and reduce reliance on non-allied countries for nuclear fuel needed for advanced and conventional nuclear energy. Through the Energy Transformation Task Force, Canada will continue to engage industry and international partners with a view to announcing concrete measures later this spring to bolster North American nuclear fuel supply chains.

Canadian steel and aluminum—among the greenest in the world—are important pillars of integrated North American manufacturing supply chains and key products to support the net-zero transition. We have invested significantly to further decarbonize our steel and aluminum sectors and to maintain their competitiveness in the green economy. As well, earlier this year, our government announced actions to increase the transparency of steel import data that will help provide more details on the origins of imported steel and align our practice with the U.S. We will continue to collaborate with the U.S. to promote common approaches for trade in low emissions green steel and aluminum goods.

Canada will continue to advance its work in partnership with the U.S., to reduce our shared exposure to production and supply chains controlled by non-likeminded countries, including by attracting investment in EV supply chains, solar, and more.

Clean Growth Hub

The Clean Growth Hub is the federal government's main source of information and advice on federal funding and other supports for clean technology projects in Canada. It directly supports up to 1,100 companies and organizations every year, ranging from emerging small businesses to Canada's world-leading clean tech companies.

Together, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and Natural Resources Canada partner with 16 other departments and agencies to offer this one-stop shop to help businesses seeking to invest in Canada and create net-zero growth navigate the federal government's numerous clean economy programs and incentives—unlocking new investment and creating good jobs for Canadian workers.

• To continue supporting clean technology stakeholders to identify and access relevant support and advice, Budget 2024 proposes to provide $6.1 million over two years, starting in 2024-25, for the Clean Growth Hub.

Made-in-Canada Sustainable Investment Guidelines

The government recognizes the importance of promoting credible climate investment and combating greenwashing, to protect the integrity and fairness of the clean economy. This is critical for fostering investor confidence and mobilizing the private investment that Canada needs to help achieve a net-zero by 2050 economy.

As announced in the 2023 Fall Economic Statement, the Department of Finance Canada is working with Environment and Climate Change Canada and Natural Resources Canada to undertake next steps, in consultation with regulatory agencies, the financial sector, industry, and independent experts, to develop a taxonomy that is aligned with reaching net-zero by 2050. 

This work is being informed by the Sustainable Finance Action Council's Taxonomy Roadmap Report, which provided the government with recommendations on the design of a taxonomy to identify economic activities that the financial sector could label as "green" or "transition."  The government will provide an update on the development of a Canadian taxonomy later this year.

Find out more about the expected gender and diversity impacts for each measure in section 4.2 Attracting Investment for a Net-Zero Economy

Small- and medium-sized businesses are an integral engine of Canada's economy, and they employ about 64 per cent of Canadian workers. Entrepreneurs, local small business, start-ups, growing medium-sized businesses—everywhere in Canada, there are people with good ideas, ready to grow their businesses and create good jobs. The government is ensuring Canada's investment climate sets businesses up for success.

For economic growth to reach the pace that is needed, existing businesses need support to stay competitive and scale-up. The government is taking action to help businesses scale-up their technological innovations, and implement productivity-raising technology across the economy. By cutting red tape, new and existing businesses can grow faster. Boosting access to financing from financial Crown corporations and encouraging Canada's large public pension funds to put their investments to work here at home will unlock new growth opportunities for Canadian businesses.

Through Budget 2024, the government is making it easier for new businesses to start-up and for existing businesses to grow by cutting red tape, and providing the tools businesses need to scale-up. The government is also taking steps to have Canadian public institutions and Crown corporations put their capital to work here at home and seize opportunities to increase Canada's growth and productivity.

The federal government has set up a range of programs and initiatives to help small and medium businesses thrive, and foster economic growth, including:

• Supporting small- and medium-sized businesses to hire 55,000 first year apprentices in construction and manufacturing Red Seal Trades through a grant of $5,000 towards upfront costs, such as salaries and training.
• Maintaining the lowest marginal effective tax rate (METR) in the G7, and a 5.2 percentage point competitive advantage over the average U.S. METR, to ensure Canada is a competitive place to do business.
• Secured commitments with Visa and Mastercard to lower credit card interchange fees for small businesses while protecting reward programs for consumers. These reductions are expected to save eligible Canadian small businesses approximately $1 billion over five years.
• Budget 2022 cut taxes for Canada's growing small businesses by more gradually phasing out their access to the small business tax rate.
• Ongoing support for small- and medium-sized businesses through Canada's seven Regional Development Agencies, including over $3.7 billion since 2018 to help businesses scale-up and innovate through the Regional Economic Growth through Innovation program.
• Almost $7 billion since 2018 for the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy to help women-owned businesses access the financing, networks, and expertise they need to start-up, scale-up, and access new markets.
• Enhancements to the Canada Small Business Financing Program, increasing annual financing to small businesses by an estimated $560 million.
• Up to $265 million for the Black Entrepreneurship Program to help Black business owners and entrepreneurs succeed and grow their businesses.
• $150 million investment in the Indigenous Growth Fund, to help recruit other investors, and in turn provide a long-term source of capital to support continued success for Indigenous businesses.
• $49 billion in interest-free, partially forgivable loans of up to $60,000 to nearly 900,000 small businesses and not-for-profit organizations through the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA).

National Regulatory Alignment

Barriers to internal trade are preventing Canada from reaching its economic potential. These barriers, most commonly the 13 different sets of regulations for each province and territory, hold back businesses from trading across provincial and territorial borders, restrict workers from moving between provinces and territories, and can increase costs for businesses as they work to overcome regulatory hurdles.

By addressing barriers to internal trade, including harmonizing regulations between provinces and territories, we can create more opportunities for Canadian businesses to grow and make life more affordable for all Canadians through greater competition and consumer choice. According to the International Monetary Fund, Canada could increase its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita by as much as 4 per cent—or $2,900 per capita estimated in 2023 dollars through the reduction of internal trade barriers for interprovincial trade of goods.

In 2022, the federal government launched the Federal Action Plan to Strengthen Internal Trade , which is guiding work with the provinces and territories to cut red tape. This includes a rigorous assessment of remaining federal exceptions in the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) and important investments in trade data and research.

Two significant milestones have now been reached, with further actions upcoming in 2024:

• The removal and streamlining of one third of all federal exceptions in the CFTA. This means the removal of 14 exceptions related to procurement that will provide Canadian businesses more opportunities to compete to deliver government goods and services. By the end of 2024, the federal government will publicly release the rationale for all remaining exceptions, and encourages provinces and territories to do the same.
• The launch of the new Canadian Internal Trade Data and Information Hub on April 3, 2024. The Hub is an open and accessible data platform that will provide governments, businesses, and workers with timely, free information to help them make choices about where to invest and where to work. The Hub will help shine a light on where labour mobility barriers are highest and where unnecessary red tape costs businesses time and money.

The federal government is committed to working with provinces and territories to ensure goods, services, and workers move seamlessly across the country by advancing the mutual recognition of regulatory standards and eliminating unnecessary red tape for full labour mobility in the construction, health, and child care sectors.

• Budget 2024 announces that the government will launch the first-ever Canadian Survey on Interprovincial Trade in June 2024, to engage thousands of Canadian businesses on the challenges they face when buying, selling, and investing across provincial and territorial borders. The survey's insights will help identify top interprovincial barriers so that they can be eliminated.

As detailed in Chapter 1, the federal government is also leveraging federal housing financing to encourage provinces and territories to align their building codes, including to support modular housing construction, to make it easier to build more homes, faster.

The federal government will announce further progress to align the regulatory environment across the country in due course.

The New Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses

Canada's small- and medium-sized businesses keep main streets flourishing across the country, create jobs, and deliver the dream of entrepreneurship. It is essential that these businesses thrive so they can continue being the bedrock of our communities and our economy.

Pollution has a cost, one which will only rise this century as climate change causes intensifying natural disasters and more severe health effects, as detailed in Chapter 5. Canada's carbon pricing system includes a federal backstop for provinces and territories that don't put their own system in place. It's a system designed to be fair and affordable—for households, Indigenous communities, farmers, and businesses—while reducing the pollution that is causing climate change.

The government is delivering on its commitment to return proceeds from the price on pollution to small- and medium-sized businesses, by announcing an accelerated and automated return process to provide direct refunds to small- and medium-sized businesses in the provinces where the federal fuel charge applies—the new Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses.

• Proceeds would be returned directly to eligible corporations through direct payments from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), separately from CRA tax refunds.
• To receive their proceed return for each fuel charge year, corporations would be required to have filed their tax return for 2023 by July 15, 2024.
• The proposal would return proceeds for future fuel charge years, including 2024-25, in a similar manner each year.

Environment and Climate Change Canada continues to consult with Indigenous governments on how best to directly return fuel charge proceeds to their communities, and will announce next steps soon. The share of fuel charge proceeds allocated to Indigenous governments will double to 2 per cent of direct proceeds beginning this year.

Unlocking New Opportunity Through Financial Crown Corporations

Canada's financial Crown corporations support economic growth by helping businesses get the financing they need to grow; helping farmers and agri-businesses invest in new equipment and technology and support their operations; and helping companies sell their products around the world.

Canadians expect the government to make the most of their tax dollars. That is why in the 2023 Fall Economic Statement the government announced it would be reviewing the operations of the Business Development Bank of Canada, Export Development Canada, and Farm Credit Canada. Based on this review:

• The amended Framework has also introduced a target solvency rating for financial Crown corporations in cases where the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions has no legislative supervisory role. The amended Framework can be found in the: Capital and Dividend Policy Framework for Financial Crown Corporations .
• The Business Development Bank of Canada should increase financing for promising new and high-growth businesses and accelerate reorientation of its venture capital investments toward emerging and higher-risk sectors to help attract more private capital.
• Export Development Canada should leverage its full toolkit and authorities, including by updating internal risk management guidance to facilitate greater risk taking across its portfolio. Recognizing that success for Canadian exporters in highly competitive markets and sectors at times requires additional targeted support, Export Development Canada should also create a new stretch capital envelope to maximize potential for exporters in areas of strategic importance for Canada by taking on greater risk in deploying its capital. Having Export Development Canada take on more higher-risk, higher-impact transactions itself will reduce the need for direct support through the Canada Account. Further implementation details, including the scale and scope of the envelope, will be identified over the coming months.
• Farm Credit Canada should continue to pursue opportunities to support agri-food and agribusiness, including through venture capital investment, and further deployment of technologies to mitigate climate change. The government intends to amend the Farm Credit Canada Act to require regular legislative reviews that ensure Farm Credit Canada's activities are aligned with the sector's needs.

In focusing their mandate on driving economic growth and productivity, these Crown corporations are also expected to prioritize new financing, insurance, and advisory support to under-financed business owners, as well as increase their public reporting and engagement with Canadians. The performance incentives of senior leaders are expected to align with their organizations taking on increased risk appetite in support of economic growth objectives. For Export Development Canada, performance incentives should also encourage alignment of business activities with countries that have free trade agreements with Canada.

Investing in Canadian Start-Ups

Venture capital financing gives Canadian entrepreneurs the resources they need to start-up, scale-up, and become the next generation of Canadian anchor companies. Financing can help take new ideas from lab to market, while creating high-quality, middle-class jobs.

The Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative (VCCI) strengthens Canada's venture capital ecosystem by co-investing with the private market, discovering and nurturing the next generation of globally recognized Canadian companies, and generating returns for private and public investors alike. Since 2016, the government has invested $821 million through VCCI, delivering support to over 300 companies across Canada.

• Building on this momentum, Budget 2024 proposes to provide $200 million over two years, starting 2026-27, on a cash basis, to increase access to venture capital for equity-deserving entrepreneurs, and to invest in underserved communities and outside key metropolitan hubs. 

Encouraging Pension Funds to Invest in Canada

Keeping Canada's vibrant economy strong for future generations of Canadians requires significant capital investments in our businesses, industries, and communities. Attracting higher levels of investment into Canada from all sources, including foreign and domestic private and institutional investors will raise Canada's productivity and increase living standards for all Canadians.

Pension plans are a critical pillar in Canada's retirement income system that ensures Canadians can enjoy a secure and dignified retirement. Canadian pension funds hold over $3 trillion in assets, which are invested both at home and abroad to provide secure retirement income for plan members and retirees.

The government believes that encouraging pension funds to invest in Canada more would help grow the Canadian economy and provide the stable long-term returns needed to deliver strong pensions for Canadians. In the 2023 Fall Economic Statement , the government committed to improving transparency around pension funds' investments and to working collaboratively with Canadian pension funds to create an environment that encourages and identifies more domestic investment opportunities for pension funds and other responsible institutional investors.

Canadian pension funds rely on their strong governance practices and diversified portfolios to deliver Canadians' pensions, with assets including public and private equity, infrastructure, real estate, and bonds. Canada's own economy is full of investment opportunities in these asset classes that could provide valuable contributions to pension fund portfolios. Opening up more opportunities for investment by pension funds in these domestic assets would help one of Canada's largest pools of savings contribute to the growth of the Canadian economy.

Further engagement with industry experts and pension funds will guide the government's way forward on ways to make more domestic investments available that meet the needs of pension funds.

• digital infrastructure and AI investment;
• physical infrastructure;
• airport facilities;
• venture capital investments;
• building more homes, including on public lands; and,
• the removal of the 30 per cent rule for domestic investments.

To support investments in airport facilities, the Minister of Transport will release a policy statement this summer that highlights existing flexibilities under the governance model for Canada's National Airport System airports to attract capital, including from pension funds.

• Following up on the 2023 Fall Economic Statement , Budget 2024 also proposes to amend the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985 to enable and require the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions to publicly release information related to the plan investments of large federally regulated pension plans.

The information to be disclosed would be set out in regulations and would include the distribution of plan investments by jurisdiction and, within each jurisdiction, by asset class.

The government will continue to engage with provinces and territories to discuss similar disclosures by Canada's largest pension plans in a simple and uniform format.

Boosting Regional Economic Growth

To build a brighter future for communities across the country, Canada's Regional Development Agencies help businesses and innovators grow to fuel economic growth and create good middle class jobs. Through the Regional Economic Growth through Innovation program, businesses can access funding to scale-up, implement new technologies, improve productivity, and find new markets, helping to develop prosperous and inclusive communities across the country.

• To create jobs and boost regional economic growth, Budget 2024 proposes to provide an additional $158.5 million over two years, starting in 2024-25, on a cash basis, to Canada's Regional Development Agencies for the Regional Economic Growth through Innovation program. A portion of this funding will be dedicated to housing innovation.

This support builds on the $200 million that Regional Development Agencies will deliver to businesses for AI adoption.

Cutting Red Tape to Boost Innovation

For innovative businesses to scale-up new ideas, they need certainty that they will be able to bring their product to market. But existing regulation can often be too outdated to fit the needs of new technologies.

To ensure regulation keeps pace with the speed of new innovations, rather than hold innovation back, the government is advancing work on regulatory "sandboxes" to create temporary rules to enable testing of products, services, or new regulatory approaches.

• Budget 2024 announces the government's intent to introduce amendments to the Red Tape Reduction Act to broaden the use of regulatory sandboxes across government. The changes will enable innovation by offering limited exemptions to existing legislation and regulations, streamlining the regulatory system, and reforming regulations to modern business realities.

Supporting the Canadian Chamber of Commerce's Business Data Lab

Since 2022, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has collaborated with Statistics Canada to provide Canadian businesses with insights and information through the Business Data Lab. This initiative provides access to real-time information and analysis, that helps Canadian businesses stay informed, and make decisions that help them stay strong and support workers.

• To advance this work, Budget 2024 proposes to provide $7.2 million over three years, starting in 2024-25, to support the Canadian Chamber of Commerce's Business Data Lab.  

Find out more about the expected gender and diversity impacts for each measure in section 4.3 Growing Businesses to Create More Jobs

4.4 A Strong Workforce for a Strong Economy 

Building an economy that is fair for everyone means making sure that every generation can seize the opportunities of the government's investments to grow the economy and create jobs.

Investing in new jobs and skills support for younger Canadians will help them get that first good job or start their first business. Strengthening labour laws and safeguarding the rights of workers will help ensure more jobs are good jobs. Skills and education investments for the next generation of workers will lead to higher productivity and benefit businesses in Canada and looking to invest in Canada who can tap into a robust, highly skilled workforce.

The federal government's generational job-creating investments today lay the groundwork for a brighter tomorrow, where good job opportunities are available to everyone.

• Helping over one million Canadians each year upgrade their skills or find new jobs by investing nearly $3 billion annually in Canada's Labour Market Development Agreements and Workforce Development Agreements with provinces and territories.
• Supporting a trades workforce that is skilled, inclusive, certified, and productive through the Canadian Apprenticeship Strategy.
• Equipping close to 105,000 Canadian workers with the skills they need by increasing access to union-led training through the Union Training and Innovation Program since 2019-20, and supporting over 45,000 apprentices through interest-free Canada Apprentice Loans since 2018-19.
• Introducing labour requirements for prevailing union wages and apprenticeship opportunities in most major economic investment tax credits to ensure Canadian workers thrive in the growing clean economy.
• Ensuring workers have time to recover when they get sick, by providing ten days of paid sick leave for all federally regulated workers.
• Banning the use of replacement workers during a strike or lockout in federally regulated workplaces to protect workers' right to strike and support a fairer collective bargaining process during labour disputes.

Empowering Young Entrepreneurs 

Futurpreneur Canada is a national not-for-profit organization that provides young entrepreneurs with access to financing, mentorship, and other business supports to help them launch and grow their business. For over two decades, Futurpreneur Canada's programs and offerings, supported by $161.5 million in federal funding, have helped over 17,700 young entrepreneurs to launch more than 13,900 businesses across the country, supporting thousands of jobs since its inception.

• To empower young entrepreneurs, Budget 2024 proposes to provide $60 million over five years, starting in 2024-25, for Futurpreneur Canada. Futurpreneur Canada will match this federal investment with funding received from other orders of government and private sector partners.

By 2029, Futurpreneur Canada estimates this investment will enable an estimated 6,250 additional youth-owned businesses to launch and scale-up their businesses.

Futurpreneur Helps Young Entrepreneurs Scale-up Their Businesses

Sarah is a recent university graduate who wants to launch a sustainable clothing manufacturing company, but is unsure where to begin. She learns about Futurpreneur Canada. After visiting their website, she finds resources to help develop and test her business model, write a business plan and even attends a webinar to answer her questions. Now, Sarah feels confident and prepared to launch her business, but is having difficulty securing financing.

She decides to apply to Futurpreneur's Startup Program to take advantage of their financing and mentorship offering. Futurpreneur helps her finalize her business plan and cash flow, collects the necessary documentation, reviews her application and determines her business is a good fit, and provides her with financing and mentoring to help launch her business and start making sales.

Sarah is matched with an experienced business mentor who will provide her with guidance and reassurance over the next two years and receives financing of up to $20,000 from Futurpreneur and up to $40,000 from BDC to help start her business. She is also connected to various networking events with experts and other young entrepreneurs to build her business network and gain peer advice.

Investing in a Strong Workforce for a Strong Economy

Investments since Budget 2017 in skills training measures include:

Labour Market Transfer Agreements: Annual investment of nearly $3 billion enabling provinces and territories to deliver training and employment supports tailored to their unique labour market needs.

Union-based training: Over $200 million through Budget 2022 and Fall Economic Statement 2022 to expand the Union Training and Innovation Program to train more than 30,000 additional apprentices and journeypersons.

Employer-led training: Budget 2021 announced the Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program to help key sectors of the economy, including the construction sector, implement solutions to address their current and emerging workforce needs. Budget 2021 also announced $250 million for the Upskilling for Industry Initiative to support more than 15,000 workers. Budget 2024 proposes $50 million over four years to provide skills training for workers in sectors disrupted by AI, and $10 million over two years to train more early childhood educators, building up the talent needed for the expansion of affordable, high-quality child care.

Apprenticeship Service: Launched the Apprenticeship Service to help first year apprentices in construction and manufacturing Red Seal trades connect with opportunities at small and medium-sized employers. Budget 2024 proposes to provide $90 million over two years for the Apprenticeship Service to help create placements in the residential construction sector.

Skilled Trades Awareness and Readiness Program:   Budget 2018 announced the Skilled Trades Awareness and Readiness Program to help Canadians explore the trades and make informed career choices. Budget 2024 proposes $10 million over two years to continue to encourage Canadians to explore and prepare for careers in the skilled trades.

Sustainable Jobs Training Fund:   Recently launched the Sustainable Jobs Training Fund to help workers upgrade or gain new skills for jobs in the low-carbon economy.

Indigenous-led training: $99.4 million per year through the co-developed Indigenous Skills and Employment Training (ISET) Program to help Indigenous people improve their skills and find employment.

Financial support for adult learners: About $250 million per year for the Canada Training Credit, which covers up to 50 per cent of eligible training fees.

Affordability for Apprentices: Eliminated Elimination of interest on Canada Apprentice Loans, which provides up to $4,000 per period of technical training for tuition, tools, equipment, living expenses and forgone wages.

Apprenticeship Requirements for Clean Economy Investment Tax Credits: to access the highest tax credit rates, projects must dedicate at least 10 per cent of labour hours performed by covered workers to apprentices. This provides apprentices with the crucial hours they need to complete their training.

Establishing a Right to Disconnect

Everyone needs some downtime; it is essential for well-being and mental health. As the nature of work in many industries has become increasingly digital, workers are finding it increasingly difficult to disconnect from their devices and inboxes after hours and on weekends. This has particularly impacted Millennial and Gen Z workers, many of whom have worked their whole careers without firm separation between work and personal time. 

The government is taking action to restore work-life balance for the many workers in federally regulated industries, including but not limited to financial services, telecommunications, and transportation, by moving forward with a right disconnect from work, outside of their working hours.

• This is expected to benefit up to 500,000 employees in federally regulated sectors.

Further, on the topic of worker misclassification, Employment and Social Development Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency will enter into necessary data-sharing agreements to facilitate inspections and enforcement.

Modernizing the Employment Equity Act

Through the Employment Equity Act , the government promotes and improves equality and diversity in federally regulated workplaces. Since the introduction of the Employment Equity Act , continued progress has been made to address inequalities, but some workers are still facing barriers to employment and many federal workplaces fail to reflect the full diversity of Canada's population. That is why, in 2021, the government launched an arm's length Task Force to review the Act and advise on how to modernize the federal employment equity framework.

• Following the recommendations of the Task Force, Budget 2024 announces the government's intention to propose legislative amendments to modernize the Employment Equity Act , including by expanding designated equity groups.

Examining Critical Port Operations

Labour disputes and work stoppages at Canadian ports can lead to serious economic impacts by disrupting supply chains. To protect port workers and resolve the structural issues underlying port labour disputes, in 2023, the government launched the first phase of a formal review in collaboration with industrial relations experts.

• Budget 2024 proposes to provide $3.1 million over two years, starting in 2024-25, to enable the Labour Program at Employment and Social Development Canada to complete the second phase of its review, which will explore long-term solutions to minimize labour disputes, respect the collective bargaining process, and secure the stability of Canada's supply chains. This funding would be sourced from existing departmental resources.

Extending Temporary Support for Seasonal Workers

Many seasonal workers—including in fishing and tourism sectors in Atlantic Canada and Quebec—rely on Employment Insurance for the support they need between work seasons. To address gaps in Employment Insurance support between seasons, the government introduced temporary rules in 2018 to provide up to five additional weeks—for a maximum of 45 weeks—to eligible seasonal workers in 13 economic regions. This support is set to expire in October 2024.

• Budget 2024 proposes to extend this support for seasonal workers in targeted regions until October 2026. The cost of this measure is estimated at $263.5 million over four years, starting in 2024-25. 

Find out more about the expected gender and diversity impacts for each measure in section 4.4 A Strong Workforce for a Strong Economy

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Disclaimer: Early release articles are not considered as final versions. Any changes will be reflected in the online version in the month the article is officially released.

Volume 30, Number 7—July 2024

Highly pathogenic avian influenza a(h5n1) clade 2.3.4.4b virus infection in domestic dairy cattle and cats, united states, 2024.

Main Article

Figure 3 . Phylogenetic analysis of hemagglutinin gene sequences in study of highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) clade 2.3.4.4b virus infection in domestic dairy cattle and cats, United States, 2024. Colors indicate different clades. Red text indicates the virus gene sequences from bovine milk and cats described in this report, confirming those viruses are highly similar and belong to H5 clade 2.3.4.4b. The hemagglutinin sequences from this report are most closely related to A/avian/Guanajuato/CENAPA-18539/2023|EPI_ISL_18755544|A_/_H5 (GISAID, https://www.gisaid.org ) and have 99.66%–99.72% nucleotide identities.

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• Cast & crew

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1

Chronicles a multi-faceted, 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west. Chronicles a multi-faceted, 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west. Chronicles a multi-faceted, 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west.

• Kevin Costner
• Dale Dickey
• Jena Malone
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• Trivia Kevin Costner 's first directorial effort since Open Range (2003) .
• Connections Followed by Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2 (2024)
• When will Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 be released? Powered by Alexa
• June 28, 2024 (United States)
• United States
• Horizon: An American Saga
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• Territory Pictures Entertainment
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• $100,000,000 (estimated)

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