Qualitative Analysis on Stage: Making the

Research Process More Public

Mixed Methods Research: A Research Paradigm

Whose Time Has Come

PRESENTER
IBETH ANGELICA BUCHELI GUEVARA
 POSITIVIST PARADIGM NATURALIST PARADIGM
(Quantitative Research) (Qualitative Research)

Reality is single, tangible and Realities are multiple-constructed,

fragmentable.

Knower and known are Knower and known are interactive

independent, a dualism inseparable.

Time and context-free generalizations Only time and context-bound

are possible. working hypotheses are possible.

Inquiry is value-free. Inquiry is value-bound

Formal writing style. Interpersonal Written directly. Detailed, rich, and

passive voice , technical terminology. deep description.
Quantitative and Qualitative Criteria for
Assessing Research Quality and Rigor
Quantitative term Qualitative term Strategy employed
•Prolonged engagement in field
•Use of peer debriefing
Internal validity Credibility •Triangulation
•Member checks
•Time sampling
•Provide deep description
External validity Transferability •Purposive sampling

•Create an audit trail

Reliability Dependability •Code-recode strategy
•Triangulation
•Peer examination
•Triangulation
Objectivity Confirmability •Practice reflexivity
 The Documentational Tables
“The problem is that qualitative researchers do not always
provide their readers with detailed explanations of how
research questions are related to data sources, how themes or
categories are developed, and how triangulation is
accomplished.”

 Data Colección: Designing interviews Questions That

Address Research Questions

 Data Management: Conducting Data Analysis Through

Code Mapping

 Findings and Data Triangulation: Methods of Verification

 Data Colección: Designing interviews Questions That Address Research Questions

Research question Interview question

1) What are the characteristics identified by P2, P3, P4, P6

principals, teachers, and students that middle T2, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9, T10
level teachers need to possess in order to be S1, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8, S10, S11
effective in teaching young adolescents?
a) Are there common identifications between P2, P3, P4, P6
and among the three groups of participants T2, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9, T10
(middle school principals, teachers, and S1, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8, S10, S11
students) with regard to characteristics middle
level teachers need to possess in order to be
effective in teaching young adolescents?
b) Are there different identifications between P2, P3, P4, P6
and among the three groups of participants T2, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9, T10
(middle school principals, teachers, and S1, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8, S10, S11
students) with regard to characteristics middle
level teachers need to possess in order to be
effective in teaching young adolescents?

2) How do teacher preparation programs help or P2, P4, P5, P6, P7

hinder the development of middle level teachers T2, T3, T4, T5, T6
and their feelings of effectiveness? S4, S5, S7, S8, S9

3) How do on-the-job experiences help or hinder P1, P3, P4, P6, P7, P8, P9, P10
the development of middle level teachers and T1, T2, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9, T10
their feelings of effectiveness? S2, S3, S4, S5, S7, S8, S10
 Code Mapping: Three Iterations of Analysis (to be read from the bottom up)

CODE MAPPING FOR ADVISORY PROGRAMS

(Research Questions 1, 2 and 3)

RQ#1: A Sense of Community And Care? RQ#2: Structural/Procedural Components RQ#3: The Effect of Advisory
and the Sense of Community? Programs on Teachers and
Students?
(THIRD ITERATION: APPLICATION TO DATA SET)
Creating Community in a State of Bureaucracy: The Paradox of Producing and The Process of
Praxis

(SECOND ITERATION: PATTERN VARIABLES)

1A. Caring is Women’s Work 2A. Battle Lines: Administrative Support vs. 3A. From Attention Provider
Teacher Resistance to Detention Giver
1B. Fear of the Affective Domain: For 2B. Student Mingling or Teacher 3B. No Matter What Happens
Some Yes and For Some No Meddling?, Something Good Seems to Result!

(FIRST ITERATION: INITIAL CODES/SURFACE CONTENT ANALYSIS)

1A. Gender Issues/Equity? 2A. Organizational Structure 3A. Discipline Problems

1A. Nurturing Ability? 2A. Scheduling/Resources? 3A. Focused and Patient
1A. Male Advisors? 2A. Support Vs. Dissatisfaction 3A. Demanding/Disruptive
1A. Only Women Can Care? 2A. Accountability?/Training? 3A. Positive and Proactive

1B. Affective vs. Cognitive 2B. Student Interest/Sharing? 3B. Connections/Interactions

1B. Waste of Instructional Time 2B. Trust/Respect 3B. Feel Better/Get Help
1B. Uncomfortable/Touchy-Feely 2B. Supportive Relationships 3B. Communication/Difference
1B. Interpersonal/Family-like 2B. Unreceptive/Bewildered 3B. Know Personally/Easier
  Matrix of Findings and Sources for Data Triangulation

 Major finding Source of data
I O Q D
Category I: Instructional Leadership
1. The principal’s strong instructional leadership had X X X X
a significant influence on the success of pedagogical
restructuring.
2. The principal provided the necessary resources to X X X
support change.
3. Extensive professional development was a key factor X X X X
for successful pedagogical restructuring.
The development of teacher leadership facilitated X X
pedagogical restructuring.
Category 2: Accountability
4. The principal held teachers more accountable for student X X
learning than any other group.
5. Teachers resented having the greatest share of accountability X X
for student learning.
6. Teachers held the principal accountable to maintain a X X
disciplined school climate and were critical of the
principal’s refusal to be responsible for how students
behaved.
7. Prior to restructuring, teachers were held accountable for X X
good classroom management—not student learning.
Category 3: Collegiality
8. Teacher leaders involved veteran teachers in the decisions X X
that affected them and reduced their resistance to change.
9. Team building and development of leadership in teachers X X
promoted cooperative relationships among teachers.
Category 4: The Milieu: The School Environment
10. Teachers and the principal were polarized because of two very X X
different philosophies: Good teaching prevents discipline problems
versus teachers need discipline to accomplish good teaching.
11. The lack of a disciplined school environment was the major barrier X X X
in the restructuring process.
12. A more student-centered environment was a direct outcome of X X X
pedagogical restructuring.
Category 5: Change: An Evolutionary Process
13. New teachers embraced change; veteran teachers resisted change. X X X
14. The principal was the catalyst for change because change was X X
Mixed Methods Research
Qualitative Mixed Methods Quantitative
Research Research Research
 Basic Agreement
 What appears reasonable can vary across persons
 What we notice and observe is affected by our
background knowledge, theories, and experiences
 It is possible for more that one theory to fit a single set of
empirical data
 Hypothesis cannot be fully tested in isolation
 The recognition that we only obtain probabilistic
evidence, not final proof in empirical research
 Researches are embedded in communities and they clearly
have and are affected by their attitudes, values, and
beliefs.
 Human beings can never be completely value free, and
that values affect what we choose to investigate, what we
see, and how we interpret what we see
 Pragmatism
 Recognizes the existence and importance of the natural or physical world as well
as the emergent social and psychological world that includes language, culture,
human institutions, and subjective thoughts.
 Endorses eclecticism and pluralism (e.g., different, even conflicting, theories and
perspectives can be useful; observation, experience, and experiments are all
useful ways to gain an Understanding of people and the world).
 Endorses a strong and practical empiricism as the path to determine what works
 Views current truth, meaning, and knowledge as tentative and as changing over
time. What we obtain on a daily basis in research should be viewed as
provisional truths.
 Capital “T” Truth (i.e., absolute Truth) is what will be the “final opinion” perhaps
at the end of history. Lowercase “t” truths (i.e., the instrumental and provisional
truths that we obtain and live by in the meantime) are given through experience
and experimenting.
 Generally rejects reductionism (e.g., reducing culture, thoughts, and beliefs to
nothing more than neurobiological processes).
 Strengths and Weaknesses of
Quantitative Research
Strengths Weaknesses
• Testing and validating already constructed theories •The researcher’s categories that
about how (and to a lesser degree, why) phenomena are used may not reflect local
occur. constituencies’ understandings.
•Can generalize research findings when the data are
based on random samples of sufficient size, or when it • The researcher’s theories that
has been replicated on many different populations and are used may not reflect local
subpopulations. constituencies’ understandings.
• Data collection using some quantitative methods is
relatively quick.
• Knowledge produced may be
• Provides precise, quantitative, numerical data.
too abstract and general for
• Data analysis is relatively less time consuming .
• The research results are relatively independent of the
direct application to specific
researcher (e.g., effect size, statistical significance). local situations, contexts, and
• It may have higher credibility with many people in individuals.
power.
• It is useful for studying large numbers of people.
 Strengths and Weaknesses of
Qualitative Research
Strengths Weaknesses
• The data are based on the participants’ own • Knowledge produced may not
categories of meaning. generalize to other people or
• It is useful for studying a limited number of cases in other settings
depth.
• It is difficult to make quantitative
• It is useful for describing complex phenomena.
• Provides understanding and description of people’s predictions.
personal experiences of phenomena • It may have lower credibility with
• Can describe, in rich detail, phenomena as they are some administrators and
situated and embedded in local contexts. commissioners of programs.
• The researcher identifies contextual and setting • It generally takes more time to
factors as they relate to the phenomenon of interest. collect the data when compared to
• Data are usually collected in naturalistic settings quantitative research.
• Qualitative researchers are responsive to changes
• Data analysis is often time
that occur during the conduct of a study (especially
during extended fieldwork) and may shift the focus consuming.
of their studies as a result. •The results are more easily
•Qualitative data in the words and categories of influenced by the researcher’s
participants lend themselves to exploring how and personal biases and idiosyncrasies.
why phenomena occur.
 Strengths and Weaknesses of
Mixed Research
Strengths
• Words, pictures, and narrative can be used to
add meaning to numbers.
• Numbers can be used to add precision to
words, pictures, and narrative.
• Can provide quantitative and qualitative
research strengths
• Researcher can generate and test a grounded
theory.
• Can answer a broader and more complete
range of research
questions because the researcher is not
confined to a single method or approach.
• Can provide stronger evidence for a
conclusion through convergence and
corroboration of findings.
• Can add insights and understanding that
might be missed
when only a single method is used.
Weaknesses
• Can be difficult for a single researcher
to carry out both qualitative and
quantitative research; it may require a
research team.
• Researcher has to learn about multiple
methods and approaches and
understand how to mix them
appropriately.
• More expensive.
• More time consuming.
• Some of the details of mixed research
remain to be worked out fully by
research methodologists (e.g., problems
of paradigm mixing, how to
qualitatively analyze quantitative data,
how to interpret conflicting results).
 Mixed-Model
Mixing qualitative and quantitative approaches within or across the
stages of the research process.

Qualitative Research Quantitative Research

Objective(s) Objective(s)

Collect Collect Collect Collect

qualitative quantitative qualitative quantitative
data data data data

Perform Perform Perform Perform Perform Perform Perform Perform

qualitative quantitative qualitative quantitative qualitative quantitative qualitative quantitative
analysis analysis analysis analysis analysis analysis analysis analysis

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
 Mixed Method
The inclusion of a quantitative phase and a qualitative phase in an
overall research study .

Concurrent Sequential

QUAL + QUAN QUAL QUAN

QUAN QUAL

QUAL + quan QUAL quan

qual QUAN

QUAN + qual QUAN qual

quan QUAL
Purposes for Conducting Mixed
Methods Research
Triangulation
Complementarity
Initiation
Development
Expansion