Buber's Dialogical Understanding Applied to Mixed-Methods Research: A Fourth Paradigm

• In Event: 45.073 - Taking Stock of the Mixed Methods Field and Its Advances

Abstract

As the field of mixed methods research evolves, the ongoing debate defining mixed methods research along with paradigm usage and its understanding remain unresolved. While three paradigms—postpositivist, transformational, and pragmatic—have taken root in mixed methods research, this paper conceives mixed methods research through a fourth paradigm grounded in the humanism of Martin Buber. The paradigm need not necessarily take the place of the aforementioned paradigms; rather these paradigms each exist nested inside an understanding of the fourth proposed paradigm grounded within Buber’s (1996) understanding of humanism and dialogical relation as put forth in his seminal work I and Thou are explicated and applied as a potential response to the long-standing controversy surrounding the use of paradigms in mixed methods research.

Author

• Keri L. Rodgers, Ball State University