Paradigms at Play: Pursuing Complexity With a Mixed-Method Initiation Design

• In Event: 41.064 - Advancing the Methodology of Mixed-Methods Research

Abstract

A commitment to a dialectical engagement with paradox is one of the rationales for using a mixed methods approach referred to as an Initiation design. This qualitative dominant investigation explored the characteristics of mixed method articles framed with an Initiation purpose. Authors of seven of nine of the articles described their conclusions in ways that confirmed the assertion that strategies to reconcile their data generated greater engagement with complexity and nuance. The research introduces an emphasis on the centrality of paradigm to the approach taken to inconsistent data. It makes an additional contribution by proposing that there is a variant of the Initiation design that is theoretically framed in ways that anticipates divergence and resists reconciliation.

Authors

• Elizabeth G. Creamer, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

• Cherie D Edwards, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University