Fa’afaletui: A Pacific Research Framework

Abstract

While typically North American and Anglo-European stances have dominated discussion on different paradigms advanced about mixed method research, recently there has been a call for examination of other cultural worldviews. This article contributes to the field of mixed methods research by presenting a worldview based on collective inquiry, whereby different perspectives are woven together to create new knowledge. Fa’afaletui, a Samoan research framework, literally means “‘ways of’ [fa’a] ‘weaving together’ [tui] deliberations of different groups or ‘houses’ [fale].” It is derived from the Pacific philosophy of connectiveness and a collective holistic approach. We give a case example of how this framework is directing our research.