Using Mixed Methods and the Transformative Research Paradigm in Climate Research

• In Event: Disrupting Hegemonic Quantitative Practice

Abstract

Advances in the development of mixed methods have been hailed as a solution to addressing the inherent limitations of quantitative research (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). Powerful examples of mixed methods findings will be offered to demonstrate how “mixing results” have helped to explain the phenomenon associated with black student engagement, address American Indian invisibility, and reconceptualize high-achieving low-income student experiences with finances in college. In each case, the numbers insufficiently offered satisfying results to deepen the conversation regarding campus climate. Mixed methods researchers move back and forth between methods in multi-phase research to go beyond triangulation to achieve “crystallization” (Mertens, 2009). However, not all mixed methods studies hold promise for advancing the welfare of underserved and marginalized communities. Mixed methods that adopt a transformative paradigm are more likely to center respect for marginalized communities, address power dynamics in context and identify unequal legitimacy of multiple perspectives, and reflect researcher engagement on behalf of and in collaboration with communities to best utilize research for their empowerment—permeating the research process with social justice aims (Mertens, 2009). In disrupting “drive by” scholarship, the distanced quantitative researcher role is replaced with new pathways for equity-minded researchers, and collaborative solutions for using evidence to break the reproduction of inequality for marginalized communities.

Author

• Sylvia Hurtado, University of California - Los Angeles