Nastaran Hoseinkhani Mixed methods research DORNYEI, CHAPTER 7 Typological organization 'QUAL' or 'qual' stand for qualitative research 'QUAN' or 'quan' stand for quantitative research Capital letters denote priority or increased weight Lowercase letters denote lower priority or weight A plus sign (+) represents a concurrent collection of data An arrow (→) represents a sequential collection of data Dimensions and categories If a study has only two components: a qualitative and a quantitative Both the sequence and the dominance dimensions have three categories: Sequence: qualitative first, quantitative first or concurrent Dominance: qualitative dominant, quantitative dominant or equal status If we include more dimensions in a typology, it will become far too large to serve any practical purpose Mixed methods research open up almost unlimited potential for future research Possible combinations sequential designs: concurrent designs: QUAL → QUAN QUAL + QUAN QUAN → QUAL QUAL + quan QUAL → quan QUAN + qual qual → QUAN QUAN → qual quan → QUAL Exemplar-based typology Typological approach is abstract More useful for the purpose of post-hoc classifications of studies than for designing new research projects We will follow a more pragmatic approach in presenting mixed designs that are organized around the actual data collection methods Positive side: it uses descriptive labels to facilitate understanding Negative side: list is selective rather than comprehensive that is it only includes the most prominent basic combinations QUAN → qual Questionnaire survey with follow-up interview or retrospection sequential explanatory design Questionnaire: collect a large amount of data/ short time, inherent weakness Adding a subsequent qualitative component to the study can remedy this weakness In a follow-up interview (individual/ group) ask respondents to explain or illustrate the patterns It is easy to implement and analyze, yet which enriches the final findings An important variation of this design involves conducting a “retrospective interview” using the respondents' own survey responses as the retrospective prompts for further open-ended reflection about what they really meant use for validating test results with a newly developed test qual → QUAN Questionnaire survey facilitated by preceding interview Designing a new questionnaire: involves conducting a small-scale exploratory qualitative study first (group or one-to-one interviews) to provide background information on the context to identify or narrow down the focus of the possible variables to act as a valuable source of ideas for preparing the item pool for the purpose of questionnaire scale construction Improves the content representation of the survey and thus internal validity of the study It is routinely used when a researcher is building a new instrument QUAL → quan Interview study with follow-up questionnaire survey Strength of Qualitative: exploratory, allowing us to gain new insights and formulate new theories because of the non-representativeness of the typical samples, qualitative data cannot inform us about how widely what is discovered exists in the rest of the world Combining a qualitative interview study with a follow-up survey can offer the best the questionnaire can specifically target the issues uncovered in the first phase of the research and investigate the generalizabitity of the new hypotheses in wider populations the questionnaire can also be used to test certain elements of the theory emerging from the qualitative phase quan → QUAL Interview study facilitated by preceding questionnaire survey Qualitative research is vulnerable in small sample sizes of the respondents The solution is to apply a purposive sampling including an initial questionnaire to help to select the participants for qualitative phase it can be used for most theoretical sampling purposes due to its flexibility Drawback: it does not work if the initial questionnaire is anonymous because then we cannot identify the appropriate survey participants. concurrent designs use two methods in a separate and parallel manner they do not influence the operationalization of each other results are integrated in the interpretation phase The main purpose of this design is to broaden the research perspective and provide a general picture and to test how the different findings complement or corroborate each other They are useful for combining micro' and macro perspectives QUAN + qual Experiments with parallel interviews the questionnaire survey and the interview study, as the key research components a natural and potentially highly fruitful design can greatly enhance the study's internal validity It is useful, for describing an aspect of a quantitative study that cannot be quantified a qualitative component within a larger, primarily quantitative study such as a program evaluation QUAL + QUAN Combining self-report and observational data ways of gaining information about people: (a) self-report: through the individuals' own accounts (interviews or questionnaires) (b) external observation Why don't people mix methods more? 1) a lack of sufficient knowledge about method mixing → easy to deal with 2) a lack of expertise to implement a mixed design shortcoming: it requires the competent handling of both qualitative and quantitative research. But Most established researchers are not equally well-versed in "both" QUAL and QUAN methodologies which is most probably related to differences in their cognitive styles and certain personality trait the real potential for the implementation of mixed methods research lies in working in teams that consist of members with different research orientations by mixing methods they arrived at a unique, complex understanding of their research topic the authors might choose to try and publish the results of the phases separately
