DEFORGE R and SHAW J. Nursing Inquiry 2012; 19: 83–95 Back‐ and fore‐grounding ontology: exploring the linkages between critical realism, pragmatism, and methodologies in health & rehabilitation sciencesAs two doctoral candidates in a health and rehabilitation sciences program, we describe in this paper our respective paradigmatic locations along a quite nonlinear ontological‐epistemological‐axiological‐methodological chain. In a turn‐taking fashion, we unpack the tenets of critical realism and pragmatism, and then trace the linkages from these paradigmatic locations through to the methodological choices that (...) address a community‐based research problem. Beyond serving as an answer to calls for academics in training to demonstrate philosophical‐theoretical‐methodological integrity and coherence in their scholarship, this paper represents critical realism and its fore‐grounding of a deeply stratified ontology in reflexive relation to pragmatism and its back‐grounding of ontology. We conclude by considering the merits and challenges of conducting research from within singular versus proliferate paradigmatic perspectives. (shrink)