Methodologies in workplace research: relevant paradigms for reform from the inside

Conducting applied research in workplace settings on/with colleagues brings with it a whole host of ethical and procedural issues about research. Empiricist, interpretive, and critical approaches all have a place in understanding, describing and changing curriculum perceptions and as one moves from one paradigm to the other the voices of the agents in the curriculum process become increasingly prominent. With reference to some of my own workplace research under the three paradigms above, I describe ways in which educational research in workplace settings represents curriculum reality and can act as an engine of change.