Qualitative researchers on paradigm proliferation in educational research: a question‐and‐answer session as multi‐voiced text

Abstract

This unconventional essay is the (slightly modified) transcript of the question‐and‐answer period of an AERA conference session on the topic of paradigm proliferation. Through responses to the discussant’s prepared questions and audience members’ comments and questions, each panelist extends and defends the ideas put forward in her or his paper and responds to the issues raised from the perspectives of the other panelists that go against the grain of their own positions. The result is a dialogical, multi‐voiced text involving three panelists, a discussant and members of the audience. The text provides a vicarious glimpse into one instance of a group’s dynamic engagement of the topic of paradigm proliferation.