Discussion question responses and analysis

¶ … mixed methods research simply taking half a quantitative plan and half of a qualitative plan and putting them together?" And an articulation of the challenges to using a mixed methods strategy of inquiry.

To what extent is mixed methods research simply taking half a quantitative plan and half of a qualitative plan and putting them together?

Mixed methods approaches blend aspects of both quantitative and qualitative research designs in their construction. For example, a study of the responses of incarcerated juveniles to a new program designed to reintegrate the adolescents back into society might use quantitative data regarding the recidivism rates of the participating vs. non-participating teens but would also contextualize the data with qualitative interviews with the teens themselves. A mixed methods approach would be justified given the need to determine the efficacy of the program in an objective fashion, particularly to justify its continued funding. However, to better determine why the program worked and to discern the subjective experiences of the teens, the qualitative component of the study would be extremely necessary. A questionnaire might not fully take into consideration unexpected areas of concern generated by the new program.

It should be noted that some researchers consider these two methods of qualitative and quantitative state of inquiry to be fundamentally polarized: "purists posit that quantitative and qualitative methods stem from different ontologic, epistemologic and axiologic assumptions about the nature of research" (Onwuegbuzie & Leech 2005: 376). Others state that in the social sciences, there is no such thing as pure 'knowledge' distilled from subjective experience and thus the two approaches are fundamentally more similar than they seem. The existence of mixed methods approaches suggests that the two methods are fundamentally different yet both offer equally valid and useful perspectives.

In theory, a mixed methods approach should unite the best of both worlds, when it comes to research -- but it can also contain the weaknesses of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies in each separate component of the research. Statistical data derived from the quantitative component of the research must be rigorously analyzed according to valid standards; qualitative data must be gathered in a meaningful fashion from the selected population and the identities and feelings of participants must be handled according to accepted ethical guidelines. There is also a final concern regarding both methodologies, which is the process of triangulation: "it's important when you do a mixed methodology that you bring those three pieces of data together" (Wilson n.d.). The quantitative data may actually contradict the qualitative data accumulated for the research, particularly if the quantitative data was derived from a much larger sampling of participants than the qualitative interviews and case study component. Mixed methods researchers must strive to present their findings in a meaningful fashion -- even if the two components of the research do not necessarily support the same conclusions, this must be highlighted in a manner to illuminate the topic.