Paradigms, beliefs and values in scholarship: A conversation between two educationists

Abstract

Scientific paradigms constantly play a role in scholarship, but researchers tend not to examine the roles of the belief and value systems associated with them. From time to time, however, a researcher may be confronted with a situation where such an analysis is unavoidable. This article takes the shape of a conversation between two researchers who have been working for several years in quite different research paradigms in the field of Religion Studies/Religion Education/Religion in Education. They investigate the possibility of collaboration as they were initially trained at the same university. After their graduate studies, their ways parted, and they developed quite different scholarly paradigms as well as belief and value systems. Their conversation not only highlights the differences in their respective current worldviews, belief systems, value systems, and academic approaches to Religious Studies, but also shows in practical terms how different scholarly paradigms (with their concomitant belief and value systems) can impact on researchers’ (views of) scholarship, science practice and research in Religion Education and Religion in Education.