The paper considers basic methodological preconditions for the qualitative oriented research, in other words, the approaches which in the study of social phenomena rely on theoretical and methodological as well as epistemological premises of a new scientific paradigm. The paper draws special attention to the discussion of criteria of verifiability in qualitative research, which are significantly different from the criteria of positivist approaches. Interpretative research paradigms in social studies have a long history and numerous sources and the very concept of "interpretative shift" consists of a number of different research approaches unified under the name of qualitative methodology. The aim of the paper is not to prove that traditional and new paradigms and quantitative and qualitative research approaches based on them are incompatible in the process of discovering pedagogical reality. The intention is to demonstrate that the complexity of social phenomena requires a complex methodology meaning a complementary use of methods and techniques from both research approaches. The study of qualitative methodological approaches and their application in research, discovery and change of pedagogical reality are particularly important because they may provide new insights into pedagogical reality and a new view of old problems. .