ABSTRACT
The previous chapter indicates that metaphysical approaches to cultural diversity can be a solution for repositioning all cultures as agents of social changes in intercultural interaction. In social science, researchers have mostly agreed with the significance of ontological and epistemological questions because ontological questions of research (e.g., what is there that can be known about it) logically lead to its epistemological questions (e.g., what is the relationship between the researcher and what can be known). On the other hand, there is some disagreement on an axiological question (e.g., whether research can be objective and value-free). For example, conventional researchers tend to hold a neutral and objective position in their research, whereas interpretivists believe that values are deeply entrenched in researchers’ unconscious minds (Schuh & Barab, 2008). This contrast indicates that objectivity can be found in epistemology and also appears as knowledge that represents ontological status of concepts and objects in terms of the resistance to change. However, ontological and epistemological questions entail axiological questions that affect formulation of research questions, choice of methods, and interpretation of data (Oancea, 2016). When we focus on axiological aspects of research, a benefit is that we are able to talk to our unexamined paradigms/worldviews. Interestingly, this allows us to identify metaphysical tensions between ontological, epistemological, and axiological assumptions and facilitate in-depth methodological justification, because being aware of axiological questions merges us into the research context. In the concept of metaphysical tensions, for example, a methodology does not mean a theoretical framework or lens by which we use various methods to collect, analyse and/or interpret data, but a meta-methodology that is aimed at justifying how a chosen methodology is associated with ontology, epistemology, and axiology. In other words, a meta-methodology is an attempt to think about our ontological, epistemological, and axiological concerns in a research question. To sum up, the three dimensions of metaphysics and methodological justification can be used as the pedagogical foundations for intercultural interaction as all participants are supposed to hold the subject position.
