Why Theory Matters: Reclaiming the Intellectual Heart of Postgraduate Research
UKZN's Professor Michael Samuel will challenge researchers at a workshop in Mauritius to confront their paradigms, name their worldviews, and research with scholarly courage
On 13 April 2026, the University of Mauritius hosts a thought‑provoking research development workshop led by Professor Michael Anthony Samuel, a leading African scholar in higher education studies and doctoral education. Titled “On Religions and Paradigms: How Theoretical Lenses Shape Our Studies”, the workshop forms part of the Mauritius Research Development Programme and builds directly on the foundational work introduced in Workshop 1, which focused on the architecture of research proposals and reports through the Research Wheel.
This second workshop moves decisively to what Professor Samuel describes as the “intellectual heartbeat” of credible postgraduate research: the theoretical framework.
Rather than treating theory as an obligatory chapter to be completed after data collection, the workshop repositions theory as the animating force that shapes how research questions are framed, how reality is understood, and how meaning is produced from data.
In doing so, it confronts a pervasive misconception within postgraduate education—that research is primarily about tools, techniques, and procedures.
At the centre of the workshop is a powerful and deliberately unexpected metaphor: the comparison between research paradigms and religious traditions. Professor Samuel invites participants to consider how paradigms, like religions, are organised systems of belief.
They possess foundational texts, authoritative thinkers, accepted rituals of practice, and boundaries that define what counts as legitimate knowledge. Just as religious traditions shape how believers interpret the world, research paradigms shape how scholars understand truth, knowledge, and the relationship between the researcher and the researched.
By exploring Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity alongside the dominant research paradigms of positivism, interpretivism, critical theory, and deconstructionism, the workshop surfaces both the possibilities and the constraints embedded in each paradigm. This comparative exercise is not designed to rank paradigms, but to make visible the often‑unspoken assumptions that guide research decisions. Participants are challenged to recognise that neutrality in research is an illusion, and that every study is already shaped by ontological, epistemological, and axiological commitments long before data are collected.
A key outcome of the workshop is a clarified understanding of the distinctions between conceptual frameworks, theoretical frameworks, and analytical frameworks—terms that are frequently conflated in postgraduate research reports. Professor Samuel provides practical guidance on the purposes a theoretical framework must serve: aligning the research questions to a paradigm, justifying methodological choices, and guiding interpretation during analysis. More importantly, participants are encouraged to develop the scholarly confidence to explicitly name, defend, and work within their paradigmatic home.
This intellectual work is situated within Professor Samuel’s broader scholarly commitment to transforming postgraduate education in Africa. A former Dean of Education at the University of KwaZulu‑Natal, a member of national policy committees, and a C1‑rated NRF researcher, Professor Samuel has spent more than three decades working at the intersection of supervision, knowledge production, and curriculum reform. His scholarship is marked by a refusal to simplify complexity and a deep commitment to southern and decolonial epistemologies that challenge inherited academic norms.
For Mauritian and regional postgraduate researchers, the workshop is especially resonant. Professor Samuel’s long‑standing engagement with Mauritius—including his work on teacher education and doctoral cohort partnerships—grounds the workshop in local realities while situating them within continental and global debates about knowledge, power, and research legitimacy. Supervisors and students alike are invited into a reflective space that values intellectual honesty, reflexivity, and ethical responsibility.
Importantly, the workshop is not limited to those who attended Workshop 1. While continuity is encouraged, new participants are welcomed into a structured yet generous learning environment that balances conceptual rigour with pedagogical care. The session promises neither shortcuts nor templates, but rather the deeper reward of intellectual clarity.
Opportunity to rethink research
Postgraduate researchers and supervisors are urged to participate actively in this workshop—not merely as a professional development exercise, but as an opportunity to fundamentally rethink how they inhabit their scholarly work. Those committed to producing research that is coherent, defensible, and transformative are called to engage with the paradigms that silently govern their inquiries. To attend this workshop is to accept the challenge of researching with greater intellectual courage, clarity, and purpose.
©Higher Education Media Services.