This textbook is rather a torch for readers to take with them in exploring the cave of knowledge and realities, rather than a complete map of this cave. To discover about realities and how we come to know realities, one may have to take one's own path(s) and discover for oneself.
NIDA has an outstanding PhD program. Part of this comes from its faculty, with another part coming from its model of an international faculty member co-teaching core courses with a full-time NIDA faculty member. In addition is the inclusion of the Epistemologies course, the only PhD in HRD program in Thailand, I believe, to include such a model.
This textbook is based on the curriculum that has evolved over the 11 years in which we have been teaching this course together. Students will now have access to a more extensive reference to the content of the course, allowing us to explore in more detail sample published articles representing each of the epistemologies. Students in other PhD programs, both within NIDA and in other universities, will find this book to be useful in filling a gap at may exist in their curricula. Such students will not face the embarrassment I faced early in my career by not being exposed to and understanding a broad range of research epistemologies. It is about time that we have access to such a book to develop outstanding PhD researchers in HRD. (Some from the foreword)
Chapter 1 The Biggest Question: What is Reality?
Chapter 2 Definitions of Important Terms
Chapter 3 Historical Evolution of Knowledge
Chapter 4 Positivism and Post-Positivism
Chapter 5 Conventionalism, Social Constructivism and Deconstructivism
Chapter 6 Phenomenology
Chapter 7 Critical Theory and Its Family
Chapter 8 The Final Chapter and the Conclusion