It believes that researchers are inherently biased by their subjective cultural experiences and worldviews.
It argues that the researcher influences their observations, and consequently, their conclusions.
It emphasizes the importance of the scientific approach to research – reductionist, logical, and empirical.
The researcher performs inquiry in a series of logically related steps.
The researcher acknowledges that there are multiple realities.
The researcher performs research processes rigorously (e.g. utilizes computer programs for data analysis, writes in the form of scientific reports, and follows a quantitative-like approach).
It argues that learning is collaborative in nature.
It seeks to understand the world in which the participants live and work by gathering the varying perspectives of participants in regard to a certain situation.
It lets the researcher make meanings and interpret the processes of interaction between individuals through experience and their own background.
It creates its own pattern of meaning, unlike post-positivism which begins with a theory.
The researcher pays attention to what the participants say or how they act.
The researcher reviews the participant's life setting.
The researcher interprets their experiences shaped by their own background, and in conjunction with the perspectives of the participants.
It emphasizes the experiences of the marginalized and underrepresented communities.
It requires an action agenda for reform, which has the capacity to benefit the lives of the participants, the institutions that they are staying in or working for, and even the lives of those who are not part specifically part of the target population.
It delves deep into issues, such as oppression, domination, suppression, alienation, and hegemony.
It embraces the marginalized communities better than post-positivists, which impose structural laws and theories that do not fit these communities, and social constructivism which does not do enough advocating to help the communities and individuals.
The researcher writes an action agenda for reform that addresses the injustices experienced by the marginalized group – the participants.
The researcher must always act for the benefit of the participants, and not to further draw the line from them.
The researcher collaborates with the participants all throughout the research process – from the generation of questions to the writing of the final report.
It argues that an idea is true if it works satisfactorily.
It emphasizes the importance of doing research to effectively address the research problem.
It focuses on the outcomes of the research rather than preceding happenings with which post-positivism is concerned, and current occurrences that social constructivism and the advocacy or participatory paradigm are concerned with.
The researcher evaluates the what's and how's of the research and its probable consequences before beginning it.
The researcher employs multiple methods that work best to answer the research question.
The researcher makes use of data collection from quantitative and qualitative sources.