What is research and who is a researcher? Why engage in research and what is the value of research? Paradigms of Research for the 21st Century explores multiple questions relating to the nature and process of educational research. The book offers an insightful and detailed account of Western and non-Western philosophical traditions and perspectives on reality, knowledge, and values. These accounts form a paradigm...a system of inquiry, a model, a way of knowing. Empirical, analytic, pragmatic, interpretive, critical, poststructuralist, and transcendental paradigms are distinguished as alternatives to a quantitative-qualitative typology of paradigms in educational research. This book is suitable for graduate courses in the theoretical foundations of research and research methodology. It features new chapters which include examples of doctoral students' research projects illustrating various systems of inquiry.