Authenticity in Constructivist Inquiry: Assessing an Elusive Construct

Authors

Patrick Shannon, University of New HampshireFollow
Elyse Hambacher, University of New Hampshire

Abstract

Methodological rigor in constructivist inquiry is established through an assessment of trustworthiness and authenticity. Trustworthiness parallels the positivistic concepts of internal and external validity, focusing on an assessment of the inquiry process. Authenticity, however, is unique to constructivist inquiry and has no parallel in the positivistic paradigm. Authenticity involves an assessment of the meaningfulness and usefulness of interactive inquiry processes and social change that results from these processes. However, the techniques for ascertaining authenticity are in the early stages of development. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to describe a process for assessing authenticity in a constructivist inquiry. A brief overview of constructivist inquiries are described in relation to a set of techniques designed specifically to assess five dimensions of authenticity. Implications for constructivist researchers and social work research are presented.

Keywords

Authenticity, Constructivist, Methodology, Qualitative, Social Work

Publication Date

12-29-2014

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2014.1418

Recommended APA Citation

Shannon, P., & Hambacher, E. (2014). Authenticity in Constructivist Inquiry: Assessing an Elusive Construct. The Qualitative Report, 19(52), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2014.1418