Discusses issues of design, sampling, and analysis in mixed methods research. Offers a model for conceptualizing a fully integrated design. Proposes and illustrates strategies for managing and dynamically integrating the qual and quant data to allow for efficient and multi-directional analysis. It is increasingly desirable to use multiple methods in research, but questions arise as to how best to design and analyze the data generated by mixed methods projects.

How the salience of research findings can be enhanced by combining survey and ethnographic methods to draw insight from anomalous cases. Using examples from a research project examining the influence of religion on childbearing preferences in Nepal, the author illustrates how survey data can facilitate the selection of ethnographic informants and how semistructured interviews with these deviant cases leads to improved theory, measures, and methods.

Presents a two-dimensional model (time orientation—concurrent vs. sequential and the relationship between the qualitative and quantitative samples—identical, nested, multilevel, and parallel) for classifying mixed methods studies sampling designs. Presents and discusses findings from the distribution of 121 studies into the model and the relative appropriateness of the employed strategy.

A concise description of key steps in the mixed research process. The authors further map this process onto issues/controversies in the use of mixed methods research and the challenges mixed methods researchers face.

This narrative and the accompanying chart (see insert at the end of this report) take the reader through the lifecycle of a research study on the effects and effectiveness of a social intervention. The narrative and chart are intended for instructional use by new researchers, as well as to assist consumers of education research such as policymakers and school leaders contracting research and evaluation work. The narrative and chart had their origins in a December 2004 national forum on incorporating multiple social science research methods in conjunction with randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in education. The National Research Council hosted this forum in collaboration with the American Psychological Association, the American Educational Research Association, and the National Science Foundation. Its underlying premise was that the contribution of RCTs to research, policy, and practice could be greatly enhanced when multiple methods are used to help understand the effects of context, population, resource constraints, and generalizability of research findings.

Offers a validation framework to guide thinking about validation in mixed methods work. An orientation from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives is used to set the foundation for discussing and thinking about validation issues. To justify the use of this framework, the authors discuss traditional terminology and vailidity criteria for quantitative and qualitative research, as well as present recently recently published validity terminology for mixed methods research.

Written a long-time authority on focus group, presents a brief history of focus group application up to, and including, information on the variety of current uses across many disciplines. Great section on the uses of focus groups in combination with other methods with a full compare/contrast discussion. Finally, goes into the specifics on ‘how to’ plan and conduct effective group data collection.

Encourages a focus on the research question as a guide to deciding on methods to apply in a particular study and comfort in cross the boundaries between pure interpretations of particular paradigmatic characteristics. Describes the nature and limitation of various mono-methods. Suggests that incorporating a pragmatic approach with a variety of appropriate methods helps gain a broader and more comprehensive perspective on the research question.

Discusses the concept of triangulation from various perspectives and the variety of approaches to implementing mixed methods research. Builds on Patton’s (1990) discussion of ‘mixed form’ design to a broader model in order to develop a taxonomy for distinguishing various mixed method designs and approaches.

Report generated by a NSF workshop on qualitative research methods. Two main sections: 1) provide a general guidance for developing qualitative research project and 2) recommendations for strengthening qualitative research. This report is organized into two major sections — general guidance for developing qualitative research projects and recommendations for strengthening qualitative research. The intent of the first section of the report is to serve as a primer to guide both investigators developing qualitative proposals and reviewers evaluating qualitative research projects. The second section of the report presents workshop recommendations for designing, evaluating, supporting, and strengthening qualitative research.