EPISTEMOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MARDONES AND URSÚA: TOWARD PARADIGMATIC COMPLEMENTARITY

Abstract

This essay analyzes the three paradigmatic positions that Mardones and Ursúa (1982) suggest within the philosophy of the human and social sciences, exploring their relevance to addressing educational phenomena. A critical-reflective approach was adopted, based on a review of the text *Philosophy of the Human and Social Sciences: Materials for a Scientific Foundation*, with the aim of understanding the foundations, strengths, and weaknesses of each paradigm. The results show that the Empirical-Analytical position can contribute to the development of methodological rigor and the capacity for generalization, tending to reduce educational complexity to observable variables. Meanwhile, the Phenomenological, Hermeneutic, and Linguistic position delves into understanding of meaning and the subjectivity of educational actors. While the Dialectical or Critical-Hermeneutic stance relativizes the political and emancipatory dimension of knowledge, that is, it seeks to integrate understanding with a critique of the dominant power relations in the educational process. Therefore, it is concluded that the approach to educational phenomena calls for a paradigmatic awareness in the educational researcher that transcends exclusivism and advances toward justified forms of epistemological complementarity, in which the selection of a paradigm responds to the nature of the educational phenomenon, as well as to the research questions and the cognitive interests that guide the research work.