Tacit Cultural Knowledge: An Instrumental Qualitative Case Study of Mixed Methods Research in South Africa

• In Event: Achieving Quality in Mixed Methods Research: Examining Research Contexts and Methods

Abstract

Notwithstanding the expansion of mixed methods, its processes and results are culturally situated. Problematically, studies in the global south often embrace methodologies aimed at understanding explicit concepts. Learning about the South African context may enlighten assumptions in Anglo-American mixed methods. Hence, this study explores tacit cultural knowledge that contextualizes South African mixed methods research.

Data included in-person interviews among South African professors and a corpus of texts. After narrative and discursive analysis, I intertwined data forms to naturalistically generalize case themes. Findings showed qualitative dominance relative to relational life approaches that require collecting data with time for talk and storytelling. The study contributes an overview of South African mixed methods and an understanding of how to handle extreme cultural contrasts.

Authors

• Debra Rena Miller, Doane College

• Leslie R. Hawley, University of Nebraska - Lincoln