Week 11 Reading: Curry and Nunez-Smith (2015) Flashcards
Curry and Nunez-Smith argument about definitions
Establishing a definition for mixed-methods is important, however, even when researchers agree on a definition, diversity in their own disciplinary and methodological expertise (transcending the definition) can hinder effective communication and collaboration
Curry and Nunez-Smith definition of mixed-method research
Research combines elements of qual and quant approaches for the purposes of breadth and depth of understanding and corroboration
What is methodological bilingualism + what is a way to facilitate it
Having minimum competency in both quant and qual methods
How to facilitate it: keep a glossary of key conceptual and methodological terms
inductive vs deductive
inductive (whereby themes, codes and categories emerge from the data) “ground up”
or deductive (whereby themes, codes and categories are chosen a priori, before the analysis starts).
key informant
individual with direct experience of the topic
when to use mixed methods
when using both methods would give you greater insight than one
2 key considerations in mixed methods
1) how the components will be integrated into each other
2) when they will be carried out
post hoc design (bad)
data is collected and the data is fit into a design retrospectively (avoid this)
three types of integration (integrating the data from the approaches)
merged, connected, embedded
merged integration
- can occur after data collection and analysis
- findings are interpreted to find concordance, discordance, divergence, complementarity amongst sets
- can illustrate complementary dimensions of success/failure
connected integration
one type builds on another, ie one dataset informs the next one, ie used to develop measurement tools for the next one
embedded integration
usually when:
- secondary question with different method is embedded into primary question
- i.e. in a quant study a qual component is nested in to support development of intervention
term for the timing of quant and qual components in relation to each other
relative timing
convergent design
both data collection methods conducted simultaneously (at the same time but the participants or sample might be different so it doesnt have to be physically done together)
- merged or embedded integration
triangulation
single phenomenon examined by multiple observers, theories, methods, or data sources
