Mixed Methods in Educational and Social Scientific Research

Catalog description

Within the social sciences, interest in and the use of mixed methods has grown dramatically in the last 10-15 years. Whereas it used to be regarded, at best, as something of an impractical oddity and at worst a paradigmatic contradiction in terms, a mixed methods approach to research has increasingly begun to enter the mainstream of methodological acceptability. This course explores various philosophical, epistemological, disciplinary, and design-related debates in relation to the rapidly expanding use of mixed methodologies in educational and social scientific research. It is intended to give students an overview of different mixed methods research approaches, to help students consider the epistemological and paradigmatic implications of mixed method designs, and to encourage students to think about, design, conduct, and/or critique mixed methods research within educational and other social scientific research. In this graduate seminar, students will read and discuss multiple examples of mixed methods studies while simultaneously examining broader critiques of and commentaries on mixed methodological approaches.