Pragmatic is an approach that focuses on the utility of knowledge for practical change in human experience. It places importance on action, which is essential to the pragmatic theory of truth because the world is always changing and the best way to alter reality is through action (Feilzer 2010). In terms of research methods, pragmatism emphasizes the importance of having an effective question and allows for flexibility in how this is determined, giving a greater priority to the research problem over ontological or epistemological concerns. This makes pragmatism a suitable worldview for examining and understanding POR.
Pragmatism is a broad philosophical movement that has influenced a variety of fields, including science, philosophy, and ethics. It is important to recognize that pragmatism is not an ideology; rather, it is an epistemological framework that can be applied to all kinds of knowledge, and it is particularly useful for the social sciences and humanities.
The field of pragmatics is an area of study that investigates how context contributes to meaning. It is a subfield of linguistics and is represented by the International Pragmatics Association. The main questions of pragmatics are how we communicate in different situations and how people understand our communication.
Languages are inherently ambiguous and people don’t always say what they mean. The study of pragmatics helps us disambiguate meaning and facilitate everyday conversation. Pragmatic knowledge is what allows you to politely hedge a request, cleverly read between the lines, and navigate turn-taking norms in conversation. It also enables you to understand how the words ‘by a tree’ work semantically—one possible interpretation is that the painting was found by a tree, while another is that it was stolen and then hung by a tree.
A defining feature of pragmatism is that the true knowledge we obtain in life comes from our experiences and interactions with others. This is an ontological position that reflects the worldview that many practitioners adopt in their daily lives. It is a perspective that is often associated with the social justice and democracy that pragmatists promote, and it is this worldview that provides an excellent foundation for conducting POR.
In the field of pragmatism, the pragmatic approach to research is one that values measurable outcomes and collaborative inquiry (Creswell 2013). This is an ideal fit for the field of POR because it emphasizes that the process of discovery can be improved by bringing researchers and stakeholders together throughout the research process to ensure that results are meaningful and relevant to real-world needs. This is an important aspect of POR, as the goals of the research are often directly applicable to clinical practice or policy development. Moreover, the pragmatic paradigm seeks to bridge the gap between the scientific method and structuralist orientation of older approaches and the naturalistic methods and freewheeling approach of newer approaches. This makes it a good choice for examining POR in the healthcare domain. In addition, pragmatism is often linked to social constructivism and participatory research and evaluation (PREE). This combination makes it an appropriate model for healthcare research.