Book excerpt: What is research and who is a researcher? Why engage in research and what can be its value? How do we come to know what lies beyond our horizons? Paradigms of Research for the 21st Century opens the door for wondering about these and other questions pertaining to the nature and process of educational research. It offers an insightful and detailed account of Western and non-Western philosophical traditions and perspectives on reality, knowledge, and values that have been responsive to past and present developments of educational research in North America. These accounts form a paradigm - a system of inquiry, a model, or a way of knowing. Empirical-analytic, pragmatic, interpretive, critical, poststructuralist, and transcendental paradigms are distinguished as an alternative to a quantitative-qualitative typology of paradigms in educational research. This book can be used for introductory and advanced research methods courses at the master's and doctoral levels.