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Honors Citizenship
Dr. .Childers-McKee
September 16, 2016
The Nuts and Bolts of Research
Mathematics, my own main field of study, is concerned with the proving of theoretical
truths, modeling how the world works, and problem-solving. In mathematics there is one right
answer built from reality and what has past been tested and proved based on a few assumptions
about the natural world. Yet, even in math there are many ways in which to arrive at or
understand the nature of such a correct answer. This is why I consider math to truly be a creative
discipline; furthermore, it is why variations in perspectives are actually quite useful in
mathematics. One of the main reasons for mathematics is to understand the world and predict
events in a more simplistic fashion, but models can only make allowance for so many variations
without becoming somewhat ineffective. I would suggest that most theoretical mathematicians
are very rooted in a Positivist Paradigm of research because of an ontology that assumes a fixed,
exterior truth about the world. I myself am more interested in applied mathematics research. As
such, in this field I mostly align my views with the Positivism Paradigm, but my ontology differs
slightly from what I think a pure positivist would hold true. The phrasing the author utilizes
when discussing the ontology that informs postpositivism in this weeks reading really resonated
with me. I believe that the world is approximately knowable (Glesne p. 7). By this I mean that
I believe there are certain natural truths about the world, only some of which humans are able to
ascertain, and that social or human interactions contain much more variability so that a greater
grey area exists when conducting research.
My epistemology and methodology naturally are influenced by my ontology. I consider
my place as a researcher to be that of observer, though I am completely aware that my own bias
is impossible to remove from the research process. I am considering career paths in the public
health field, either as a biostatistician or epidemiologist. Both are very statistics-based. Statistics
is a branch of mathematics that recognizes uncertainty in events, but is still concerned with
minimizing bias and generating significant data to indicate correlation. As such, even in these
fields I would be following largely the Positive Paradigm in striving to keep myself from
interfering with the data collection. However, my preference in methodology is generally for a
Works Cited
Glesne, Corrine (2005). Meeting Qualitative Inquiry. Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An
Introduction (Chapter One). Retrieved September 15, 2016 from https://uncc.instructure.
com/courses/6854/files/757255?module_item_id=576742.