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# Long description

This figure is the second segment of a larger figure to be shown in full later, in Section 4 of this course. This second segment, entitled ‘Paradigm’, represents the second phase in the process which considers the ‘Refined research questions’. The segment contains four arrows forming a cruciform shape. The first arrow points upwards to the question ‘What is there to study? (ontology)’. The second arrow points down to the question ‘How can we know about it? (epistemology)’. The third arrow emerges from the left-hand border between the first and second segments, and points to the right, to the centre of the cruciform shape. The fourth arrow emerges from the right and also points to the centre of the cruciform shape. It is pointing from the main descriptor of this segment, the ‘Refined research questions’. Further to the right of this descriptor, an arrow points towards the questions ‘How do we find out what we are looking for? What data is needed? (methodology)’. These questions are on the boundary between the second and third segments. This indicates that the initial research questions are refined when they are related to the researcher’s ontological and epistemological theories. The refined questions are then subjected to consideration about how to produce the data necessary.