Qualitative Psycholgy Nexus Vol. VIII: Epistemologies for Qualitative Research

The 9th annual meeting of the Center for Qualitative Psychology was held in Northern Finland, near to the city of Oulu. The seminar was started with two crucial questions leading the participants to the theme of the conference. The orientation followed the line of the former meetings of the Center for Qualitative Research in Psychology helping participants to reflect own ways of doing psychological research. In the beginning of the conference we asked the conference participants a simple question: What do you want to know about epistemology? In small groups the participants expressed questions like - what is epistemology, are there many epistemologies, what do we mean by epistemology and what epistemological approaches do we have in psychology. During the two conference days these questions we reformulated and new themes were elaborated by the participants. At the end of the seminar the participants were finally asked "in what questions did you find answers?" This volume presents articles on four extensive themes about qualitative research and the psychological and educational research. It seeks to highlight and illustrate the variety of epistemologies and the personal stance every researcher has to take to these questions. The first topic is concentrated on the epistemological questions. The second topic includes two viewpoints to practical and strongly context-based debate of brutal computer games and specific early communication. The third topic includes articles on educational questions and issues like interculturality, diversity, and vocational training. The fourth topic treats how theoretical and methodological solutions may define the chosen epistemological stance.