Reflections of a Mixed-Method Researcher

• In Event: Ensuring Quality in Mixed-Methods Research in Higher Education: From Theory to Praxis

Abstract

The author will follow an autoethnography of her research combining qualitative and quantitative methods, and will share experiences with reviewers of journals, in order to make sense of the framework and language of “quality” used in research, including attempts to identify quality in mixed methods studies. Using Beecher’s notion of “academic tribes” and Kuhn’s notion of paradigm shift she situates herself “on the border” of methods and paradigm. Her research began as a “critical quantitative” researcher, intent on documenting the experiences of underrepresented groups in higher education. Others have also identified her as using quantitative research to raise critical questions about social justice issues (Stage, 2007) even though most of her projects have also involved the collection of qualitative data. Autoethnography situates the individual within a broader social and cultural milieu, and shifts the lens inward and out and back again to make sense of the world (Given, 2011). The point of the narrative is to reflect the learning that goes on throughout an academic career about what is “quality” research, and how one is situated within normative constraints of established method and creation of something new that moves beyond existing methods. The point of the paper is to offer a narrative that resonates with other researchers contemplating mixed method research and how definitions of “quality” externally and internally defined reflects shapes the goal of producing equity-minded research. Reflexivity is encouraged among researchers to evaluate new directions in research.

Author

• Sylvia Hurtado, University of California - Los Angeles