Foundations of Mixed Methods Research by
This text begins with an introduction to, and overview of, the development of mixed methodology, and then takes students through all aspects of working with mixed methods from research design and data collection through to analysis and conclusions.
Advances in Mixed-Method Evaluation: the Challenges and Benefits of Integrating Diverse Paradigms by
Evaluation theory and practice today are characteristically pluralistic, embracing diverse perspectives, methods, data, and values within and across studies that aim to generate more insightful and meaningful evaluative claims. This volume seeks to strengthen the promise of pluralistic evaluation by advancing an enhanced conceptual framework for planning and implementing mixed-method evaluation studies. Previous mixed-method work has concentrated on the technical level of method, focusing on combining qualitative and quantitative methods within one evaluation study. The present mixed-method volume addresses the philosophical level of paradigm, analyzing the challenges of combining in one study different, even conflicting, assumptions about the nature of social phenomena and our claims to know them. The volume argues for a shift in the mixed-method conversation. The shift would be away from a preoccupation with explicit assumptive differences among paradigms, such as objectivity-subjectivity and realism-relativism, and toward other characteristics of social inquiry traditions. Such characteristics define these traditions in important ways but are not logically irreconcilable. The significant advance here is to redirect the bases for mixing methods away from what may well be incommensurable philosophical assumptions and toward other inquiry characteristics that can more productively share a common analytic space. Through analysis of illustrative cases, this volume presents an array of conceptual and practical ideas for promising mixed-method inquiry directions. This is the 74th issue of the quarterly journal New Directions for Evaluation.
Mixed Methods and Credibility of Evidence in Evaluation: New Directions for Evaluation, Number 138 by
Mixed methods in evaluation have the potential to enhance the credibility of evaluation and the outcomes of evaluation. This issue explores advances in understanding mixed methods in philosophical, theoretical, and methodological terms and presents specific illustrations of the application of these concepts in evaluation practice. Leading thinkers in the mixed methods evaluation community provide frameworks and strategies that are associated with improving the probability of reaching the goals of enhanced credibility for evaluations, the evidence they produce, and the actions taken as a result of the evaluation findings.This is the 138th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series "New Directions for Evaluation," an official publication of the American Evaluation Association.
Mixed Methods Research - "is an approach to a research problem that leverages the advantages of both qualitative and quantitative research methods to better understand the subject than any individual approach could offer on its own. It recognizes that qualitative and quantitative data can each contribute to different aspects of understanding a problem, and it integrates both approaches within a holistic methodological approach" (Harper, 2013).