Paradigm, understood as a set of accepted beliefs, values, assumptions and techniques that determine what researchers choose to study, how they study it and how research findings are interpreted.

Participant observation is a research method where the researcher observes the everyday lives and work of participants to understand how they make sense of them. This typically involves living and working with participants for extended periods.

Positionality is a term used by qualitative researchers to reflect on the extent to which a researcher’s identity and lived experience enables sufficient identification with participants to enable meaningful engagement and shared understanding.

Positivism is an epistemological perspective that is aligned with the scientific method. It is associated with a realist ontology and deductive theory-building through the empirical testing of hypotheses in order to produce objective knowledge that is presumed to be generalisable.

Postcolonialism is the process of (re)building sovereignty and self-governance after colonial rule (see also colonialism).

Post-positivism refers to a group of methodological and theoretical perspectives that reject the logic of positivism as a basis for human inquiry.