ABSTRACT
This chapter examines one of the choices that academics often feel constrained to make when constructing research courses: whether to teach a quantitative or qualitative methodology (or both). We explore the usefulness of selecting curriculum content by making a distinction purely on a methodological level. We begin with a brief discussion of the principles and practices on which quantitative and qualitative research operate that brings to the fore the philosophical assumptions that underlie the differentiation between these methodologies and the reasons that inform their uses. We examine the criteria given in the literature for including either or both of these methodologies in the curriculum of a research course. We conclude that choosing between methodologies (or even combining methodologies) does not necessarily imply an attendant philosophical framework and argue that constructors and/or teachers of research courses need to be more aware of unexamined ontological and epistemological assumptions and about what we subsequently teach students.
