Using Mixed Methods

Frameworks for an Integrated Methodology

By: David Plowright

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eText | 20 December 2010 | Edition Number 1

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Using Mixed Methods offers an innovative approach to social and educational research. The author sets out the case for research from an holistic perspective, integrating different methods, different data and overall research strategies.

This book shows how to use an integrated methodology that meets the needs of the postgraduate researcher who wants to challenge the traditional paradigmatic view of research.

The author explores:

- The FraIM and its application to social and educational research

- The contexts of research

- Different methods of data collection

- Types of data and their natural integration within the research process

This book is for final year undergraduate and postgraduate students on social science and education courses.

David Plowright is a lecturer in the Centre for Educational Studies at the University of Hull.

Industry Reviews

This is not just yet another book for the bookshelf labeled Research Methods. It proposes a fundamentally different way of thinking about, and doing, social and educational research. In this approach the research methodology determines the philosophy rather than the reverse. This basic shift from the usual perspective encourages not only a pragmatic approach to research but is surprisingly liberating. Much of the usual nomenclature of research is wiped clean away so that the student is freed from the notion of having to learn a new dictionary of research terminology before embarking on the voyage of discovery. This not only positively sanctions 'mixed methods' approaches, but implies that the traditional barriers between research methodologies have often been misguided. The framework offered in this book will be well worth considering by any student embarking on research in these fields. The overall structure of the book, the chapter summaries and the linking chapter conclusions offer in themselves a model of clear expression. Read this book before you read any of the other texts on research methods and you may never clutter up your mind in the first place!
Professor David Hellawell
Birmingham City University

This is an unusual and stimulating introductory research methods text which will be of real interest to anyone setting out on a small scale research study. It is not the first to reject the well-known qualitative/quantative dichotomy, but it is probably the first to reject the terms themselves and the conceptual baggage they bring with them, preferring instead to concentrate on the frameworks used to organise the way research is thought about. The introduction of Frameworks for an Integrated Methodology (FRaIM) is a novel and evidently productive way of understanding and synthesising the host of methodological literature that can so easily confuse the beginning researcher. The emphases throughout are on integration and methodology and on clarity of expression. Practical examples support and develop further the key elements of the book and each chapter is supported by relevant further reading. This book represents a key text for the individual social science researcher and for those involved with introducing the general area of research methods to beginning researchers
Professor Peter Gilroy
University of Plymouth

This is an intriguing book in many respects, perhaps the first true attempt I have come across to provide a practical framework for new researchers that want to work with mixed research methodology...I have already recommended students to take a look at it and see if it resonates with them and their work. Some have, with one or two deciding they will use it as a frame for their EdD theses....particularly for the new researcher, I imagine it could be a very useful tool in their research armoury
Dr Julie Anderson
ESCalate