Lourie, MMcPhail, G2024-10-302024-10-302024-10-07New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, ISSN: 0028-8276 (Print); 2199-4714 (Online), Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 1-15. doi: 10.1007/s40841-024-00344-40028-82762199-4714http://hdl.handle.net/10292/18204This article explains and illustrates an approach to the design of qualitative inquiry in education using a conceptual methodology informed by a realist ontology. It is written with research novices in mind, based on two observations we have made while supervising postgraduate students. The first is that the methodology literature education students often engage with tends to focus on interpretivist-constructivist approaches. The second observation is that it can be challenging for students to find appealing and accessible material which employs realist informed methodology. To counter this we offer a general introduction to undertaking educational research informed by a realist ontology drawing on a simplified account of critical realism (CR). We illustrate the key concepts of this approach using examples from postgraduate studies in education. It is our hope that this article may stimulate wider discussion about the possibilities, development, and use of realist approaches.Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/3901 Curriculum and Pedagogy3903 Education Systems39 Education4 Quality Education13 EducationEducation39 EducationJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.1007/s40841-024-00344-4