Trends toward convergence on common methodologies and standardized templates restrict the diversity of qualitative methods in organizational research. Considering that graduate education is a critical process in the socialization of researchers into the norms and dominant practices of their discipline, graduate students’ socialization into research methodologies is vital for understanding methodological convergence. The purpose of our study was to understand how graduate students’ socialization shapes their methodological and paradigmatic preferences. Showcasing methodological bricolage as an alternative to qualitative templates, we constructed a research design that combined thematic, discourse, and narrative analyses to investigate graduate students’ reflections throughout a qualitative methods course introducing alternative research paradigms. Our findings highlight the role of institutional, disciplinary, and personal influences as well as identity work in researchers’ socialization and trace alternative trajectories by which socialization and methodological identity construction processes may unfold. We offer a sketch of methodological socialization and suggest that its understanding should be central to nurturing paradigmatic and methodological plurality in qualitative research. We conclude with implications for future research and for research methods training.

通用方法和标准化模板趋同的趋势限制了组织研究中定性方法的多样性。考虑到研究生教育是研究人员融入其学科规范和主导实践的社会化过程中的关键过程，因此，研究生将研究方法进行社会化对于理解方法论的融合至关重要。我们研究的目的是了解研究生的社会化如何塑造他们的方法论和范式偏好。通过展示方法论方法作为定性模板的替代方法，我们构建了一种研究设计，该方法结合了主题，话语和叙事分析，以在介绍替代性研究范式的定性方法课程中调查研究生的反思。方法学的身份建构过程可能会展开。我们提供了方法论社会化的草图，并建议对方法论社会化的理解对于在定性研究中培养范式和方法论多元性至关重要。我们以对未来研究和研究方法培训的意义进行总结。