The Constructivist Credo

The Constructivist Credo is a set of foundational principles for those wishing to conduct social science research within the constructivist paradigm. They were distilled by Yvonna Lincoln and Egon Guba from their many writings on this topic and are provided in the form of 150 propositional statements. After Guba's death in 2008, the Credo was completed by Lincoln and is presented here. In addition to the key principles of constructivist thought, the volume also contains an introduction to constructivism, an intellectual biography and complete bibliography of Guba's work, and a case study using constructivism, showing how the paradigm can be applied to a research study.

Yvonna S. Lincoln is professor of higher education and human resource development at Texas A&M University, where she holds the Ruth Harrington Chair of Educational Leadership and University Distinguished Professor of Higher Education. She and Egon Guba coauthored foundational works of constructivist social science, such as Effective Evaluation, Naturalistic Inquiry, and Fourth Generation Evaluation. She also edited Organizational Theory and Inquiry, and co-edited (with Norman K. Denzin) four editions of The Handbook of Qualitative Research, the journal Qualitative Inquiry, and several book series.

Egon G. Guba was emeritus professor of education at Indiana University until his death in 2008. A central figure in educational theory and research, he popularized the use of constructivism in education and other social sciences.