Which of the following represents the epistemological orientation of qualitative research?

The epistemological orientation of qualitative research is interpretivism, which seeks the meanings actors attach to their world.

Interpretivism holds that social reality must be understood from the participants' own point of view.

Deductivism is a mode of theorising, moving from theory to data, not an epistemology as such.

Positivism is the epistemology of quantitative research, applying natural-science methods to social facts.

Subjectivism is more an ontological stance about the mind-dependent nature of reality.

Qualitative research typically couples interpretivism with a constructionist ontology.