Requisite variety: the problem with generic guidelines for diverse genres of inquiry

Abstract

In response to an invitation to explore the idea that potential guidelines be considered for qualitative inquiry in environmental education research, this article argues that prerequisite understanding of the nature and scope of qualitative inquiry required for such a task will reveal the problem inherent in it. Understanding the diverse complexities, the requisite variety, of qualitative inquiry not only challenges the methodological uniformity necessitated by this task philosophically; it unmasks the epistemological and ontological limits of such an endeavor, however well intentioned.