Mixed methods research and its role in social and educational change
Mixed methods research and its role in social and educational change

Summary/Abstract: The paper describes Mixed Methods research and some of the dilemmas involved in it. Two main approaches characterize the development of this kind of research: one anchored in a pragmatic world view that deals with the best ways to understand social phenomena and the other – the transformative – which supports the active role of the research in advancing social change and responding to problems of injustice, discrimination and oppression. The paper demonstrates the approach through a study involving a network of schools whose vision is to promote educational values by changing the school into “an educational home”. The study used a sequential mixed method design in which the first stage was qualitative ethnographic and on its basis questionnaires were developed for the teachers and the students who participated in the change process. The study engaged all participants in dialogue and equalitarian relationships between them have been developed. The study demonstrates that for a social-educational transformative project aimed at inflicting change to be successful one needs a transformative research design that will accompany it.

• Details
• Contents