10 RESEARCH DESIGN IN QUALITATIVE/QUANTITATIVE/ MIXED METHODS MICHAEL R. HARWELL University of Minnesota he editors of this handbook assert that cases, these designs are currently available, and educational inquiry is weakly connected the challenge is for more researchers to employ T to the study of promising ideas. The them (or continue to employ them) in a rigorous implication is that much educational research has manner. In other instances, new designs will need a “nuts and bolts” character that limits creative to be developed. The net effect is that the catalog problem generation or problem solving and of research designs available to educational discourages risk taking. The consequences of this researchers is expanding dramatically. This practice are missed opportunities to advance our change does not threaten or undermine the value understanding of important educational problems of designs that are currently widely used, but and solutions. This is a bold assertion, but it is one rather it increases the pool of research designs that is supported by an examination of published available to support rigorous inquiry. and unpublished educational studies. This chapter explores the role of research A key player in this process is a study’s research design in the study of promising ideas in educa- design. In many educational studies, research tion, assuming two conditions are present. First is design reflects a “cookie cutter” approach in which that the idea being pursued is worth pursuing, the same designs are repetitively and narrowly that is, an idea that could reasonably lead to, and applied in ways that may limit what is studied and support, the formation of important educational how it is studied. Research-based ideas that cannot questions and identification of solutions to be easily mapped onto a small number of designs important educational problems. Second is that acceptable to funders and professional journals every phase of the research process linked to are likely to be abandoned or modified to fit studying a promising idea is rigorous. These con- widely used research designs. ditions simplify an examination of the role of The assertion of this chapter is that the study research design in the study of promising ideas. of promising ideas in education would be well Characteristics of three research methodolo- served by the increased use of research designs gies (qualitative methods, quantitative methods, that draw on multiple traditions of inquiry. In some mixed methods) and their role in studying ideas 147 148 SECTION III. OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN DESIGNING AND CONDUCTING INQUIRY believed to be worth studying are described. I use analyze qualitative data; quantitative studies are, two studies to illustrate strengths in the research among other things, studies that collect and design, as well as opportunities to enhance the analyze quantitative data; and so on. results, and give greater attention to mixed meth- Crotty (1998) described four key features to ods because of their relative newness and poten- consider in research design: the epistemology tial. Three ways that researchers can enhance the that informs the research, the philosophical ability of research designs to better support the stance underlying the methodology in question study of promising ideas in educational studies (e.g., post-positivism, constructivism, pragma- are described. I conclude by arguing that mixed tism, advocacy/participatory; see Morgan, 2007), methods offer an especially promising path toward the methodology itself, and the techniques and using research design in ways that support rigor- procedures used in the research design to collect ous inquiry. data. These features inform the descriptions of research designs below. RESEARCH DESIGN Qualitative Research Methods In educational research, it is usually possible Qualitative research methods focus on discov- (and certainly popular) to characterize a research ering and understanding the experiences, per- study’s methodology as qualitative; as quantita- spectives, and thoughts of participants—that is, tive; or as involving both qualitative and quanti- qualitative research explores meaning, purpose, tative methods, in which case it is typically or reality (Hiatt, 1986). In other words, referred to as mixed methods. The term research design is widely used in education, yet it takes on qualitative research is a situated activity that different meanings in different studies. (The locates the observer in the world. It consists terms research method and research design will be of a set of interpretive, material practices that used inter changeably in this chapter.) For exam- make the world visible. These practices ple, in one study, research design may reflect the transform the world. They turn the world into a entire research process, from conceptualizing a series of representations, including field notes, problem to the literature review, research ques- interviews, conversations, photographs, tions, methods, and conclusions, whereas in recordings, and memos to the self. At this level, another study, research design refers only to the qualitative research involves an interpretive, method ology of a study (e.g., data collection and naturalistic approach to the world. This analysis). Perhaps not surprisingly, there is varia- means that qualitative researchers study things tion within and between methodologies in how in their natural settings, attempting to make research design is defined. However, this varia- sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of tion does not affect an examination of the role the meanings people bring to them. (Denzin & of research design in promoting rigorous study Lincoln, 2005, p. 3) of promising ideas and, thus, a single definition of research design is not adopted in this chapter. Central to this inquiry is the presence of mul- I assume that research questions are the driving tiple “truths” that are socially constructed (Lincoln force behind the choice of a research design and & Guba, 1985). Qualitative research is usually any changes made to elements of a design as a described as allowing a detailed exploration of a study unfolds. topic of interest in which information is collected Identifying a study’s research design is impor- by a researcher through case studies, ethnographic tant because it communicates information about work, interviews, and so on. Inherent in this key features of the study, which can differ for approach is the description of the interactions qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. among participants and researchers in naturalistic However, one common feature across research settings with few boundaries, resulting in a flexible designs is that at one or more points in the and open research process. These unique interac- research process, data are collected (numbers, tions imply that different results could be obtained words, gestures, etc.), albeit in different ways and from the same participant depending on who for different purposes. Thus, qualitative studies the researcher is, because results are created by a are, among other things, studies that collect and participant and researcher in a given situation Chapter 10. Research Design in Qualitative/Quantitative/Mixed Methods 149 (pp. 39–40). Thus, replicability and generalizabil- interviews and media collected during the author’s ity are not generally goals of qualitative research. visits to India in ways that took into account his Qualitative research methods are also described identity; Harry, Sturges, and Klingner (2005), as inductive, in the sense that a researcher may who used the methods of grounded theory to construct theories or hypotheses, explanations, develop a theory providing a new perspective on and conceptualizations from details provided by a ethnic representation in special education; Brown participant. Embedded in this approach is the (2009), who studied the perspectives of university perspective that researchers cannot set aside their students identified as learning disabled; and experiences, perceptions, and biases, and thus Chubbuck and Zembylas (2008), who examined cannot pretend to be objective bystanders to the the emotional perspective and teaching practices research. Another important characteristic is that of a White novice teacher at an urban school. the widespread use of qualitative methods in edu- These studies reflect several important fea- cation is relatively new, dating mostly to the 1980s, tures of qualitative research, including a focus with ongoing developments in methodology and on discovering and understanding the experi- reporting guidelines (Denzin, 2006). The relative ences, perspectives, and thoughts of participants newness of this methodology also means that through various strategies of inquiry. The stud- professional norms impacting research, includ- ies were also conducted in naturalistic settings in ing evidence standards, funding issues, and edi- which inquiry was flexible and guided by par- torial practices, are evolving (see, e.g., Cheek, ticipants’ comments, which in some instances 2005; Freeman, deMarrais, Preissle, Roulston, & were used to construct explanations of their St.Pierre, 2007). Good descriptions of qualitative views and perspectives. An important feature of methods appear in Bogdan and Biklen (2003), several of these studies is their use of elements of Creswell (1998), Denzin and Lincoln (2005), different strategies of inquiry. Miles and Huberman (1994), and Patton (2002). There are several categorizations