A Post-Positivist Perspective on the Varieties of Qualitative Research: The FORIS Framework

Authors

• Marius Bytautas, Educational Research Institute, Vytautas Magnus University, LithuaniaFollow

Abstract

With the aim of bringing clarity to the realm of qualitative research—and offering a transition from tradition to methodological rationale—I employ Millian and Popperian inductive analysis methods to build a post-positivist account regarding the diversity of qualitative research varieties. I am responding to the problem that common labels in qualitative research often obscure the epistemic reasoning through which a study approaches its object. A brief set of working definitions is introduced to support the framework, but the main contribution is the conceptualization of research approach in five dimensions: focus, orientation, relation to the object, researcher intrusiveness, and scale (FORIS). By considering research approaches as something to be constructed rather than chosen, the FORIS framework suggests that qualitative studies should be described through their epistemic configuration rather than only through established methodological traditions. Employing the lenses of the proposed framework, common qualitative research varieties are reconsidered as approaches, analysis methods, methodological traditions, theoretical frameworks, or scale characteristics. Finally, the framework is applied to a published qualitative study to show how FORIS can make visible the epistemic considerations that remain only partly explicit in conventional methodological reporting. The article concludes by presenting FORIS as an additional layer of epistemic transparency that may support research design, reporting, and reflection on qualitative knowledge claims.

Keywords

FORIS framework, qualitative research, research approach, conceptual inquiry, methodological transparency, post-positivism, research design

Author Bio(s)

Marius Bytautas, Educational Research Institute, Vytautas Magnus University, K. Donelaičio str. 52, Kaunas, 44243, Lithuania. Please direct correspondence to [email protected]

Publication Date

8-31-2026

Creative Commons License

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

Recommended APA Citation

Bytautas, M. (2026). A post-positivist perspective on the varieties of qualitative research: The FORIS framework. The Qualitative Report, 31(8), 6480-6493.

ORCID ID

0000-0002-7024-1913

ResearcherID

JVO-6176-2024