Mixed methods research

Mixed methods research is widely used and becoming increasingly ‘recognized as the third major research approach’ along with quantitative and qualitative research (Johnson, Onwuegbuzie and Turner, 2007: 112). ‘Mixed methods research means

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adopting a research strategy employing more than one type of research method. The methods may be a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, a mix of quantitative methods or a mix of qualitative methods’ (Brannen, 2005: 4). The research strategy employed in the current research was a mix of qualitative (interviews, observations) and quantitative (questionnaires) methods.

5.1.1.1 Understanding of mixed methods research

‘Mixed methods research integrates qualitative and quantitative methods’ (Pluye and Hong 2014: 30).

For Mingers (2001) mixed methods research is a research framework that combines various research methods, both quantitative and qualitative, with a predominance of either of these two. Tashakkori and Teddlie (2003) defined mixed methods research as research in which more than one method or more than one worldview is used. They observed that “the emergence of mixed methods as a third methodological movement in the social and behavioural sciences began during the 1980’s” (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2003: 697) when it was considered possible to combine qualitative and quantitative methods of scholarly inquiry as “the third research community” (Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2009: 4 cited in Graff 2010). At the time of the emergence of mixed methods research, Bonoma (1985) understood it as collecting different kinds of data through different methods and from different sources in order to provide a fuller picture of the problem under study than would have been achieved otherwise. As well as aiding data collection, mixed methods approaches can be applied to data analysis where different data analytical techniques are used in a single study:

Mixed methods research involves the use of more than one approach or method for research design, data collection or data analysis within a single program of study, with integration of the different approaches or methods occurring during the program of study, (…) (Bazeley, 2010: 1).

All the definitions above given by different authors highlight a common

characteristic of mixed methods research that is the combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches or methods to data collection and analysis.

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According to Cresswell and Plano Clark (2007), because of the combination of both quantitative and qualitative approaches the complexity of the research problem is better understood in mixed methods research than in either the quantitative or qualitative approach alone. This is supported by Pluye and Hong (2014):

Mixed methods are used to combine the strengths of, and to compensate for, the limitations of quantitative and qualitative methods. We offer three main reasons for mixing methods. First, researchers may need qualitative methods to interpret quantitative results. Second, they may need

quantitative methods to generalize qualitative findings. Third, they may concomitantly need both methods to better understand a new phenomenon (qualitative methods) and to measure its magnitude, trends, causes, and effects (quantitative methods) (Pluye and Hong, 2014: 30).

In the light of what was said by the different authors above, the following section discusses the reasons why mixed methods research was employed in the current study.

5.1.1.2 The reasons why mixed methods research was employed

One of the important advantages of using mixed methods research is to obtain a richer understanding of the phenomenon under investigation (Bonoma, 1985; Mingers, 2001): in this case, the perceptions of teachers of English of the effectiveness of their teaching of English. The classroom problems and

challenges faced by teachers of English in Sri Lanka are complicated as they are closely connected to the effects of the prolonged civil war which ended in 2009, wider politicisation of and corruption in the education system and the socio- economic disparities among students (Annual Report on Human Rights, 2009; ICG, 2012; IRIN, (nd); Research Report, 2009). As such, the problems need more than a single point of view to be understood in their complexity (Cf: Cresswell and Plano Clark, 2007), and so as to avoid possible misinterpretation. Since mixed methods research combines (Mingers, 2001) or integrates (Pluye and Hong, 2014) different research instruments (quantitative and qualitative) to enable the researcher to approach the context from different points of view it was found to be particularly appropriate to the current study.

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The aspect of triangulation (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 2003) was another reason for mixed methods research to be employed in the current research. A fuller picture of the research phenomenon can be achieved by triangulating the data obtained from different sources. “(…) triangulation is defined as the mixing of data or methods so that diverse viewpoints or standpoints cast light upon a topic” (Olsen, 2004: 3). Olsen calls diverse viewpoints upon a research problem as a dialectic of learning.

The resulting dialectic of learning thrives on the contrasts between what seems self-evident in interviews, what seems to underlie the lay

discourses, what appears to be generally true in surveys, and what

differences arise when comparing all these with official interpretations of the same thing (ibid: 4).

Hence, triangulation does not simply mean presenting different viewpoints on a topic as they appear rather it involves presenting different viewpoints, evaluating their impacts on one another and interpreting them in their totality in relation to the question under investigation. Rugg (2010) highlights “four types of

triangulation originally identified by Denzin in the 1970s: (1) data triangulation; (2) investigator triangulation; (3) theory triangulation; and (4) methodological or method triangulation” (p. 14). The current study employed the method

triangulation which involved qualitative (interviews and lesson observations) and quantitative (questionnaires) methods to study the situation. Olsen says, “The mixing of methodologies, e.g. mixing the use of survey data with interviews, is a more profound way of triangulation” (2004: 3). By employing the method triangulation, the current study used the results of one method to enhance, argue and clarify the results of other methods. Besides the method triangulation, the current study also had elements of data triangulation which involves different sources of information about the topic under investigation. The different sources in the current study were students, teachers of English, principals, retired teachers of English and resources personnel of English language teaching. The findings of the different sources were corroborated, weaknesses in the findings of one source were compensated by the findings of another and false interpretations were reduced (Rugg, 2010). Hence the aspect of triangulation was found to be

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beneficial in the current study which dealt with complicated problems of the English teaching and learning contexts of Sri Lanka.

More specifically, the current study integrated questionnaires (quantitative method) and interviews and lessons observation (qualitative methods). Certain kinds of research instruments were found to be more suitable with certain categories of participants than others. For example, since the current study involved a large number of students, questionnaires were found to be more

appropriate to obtain general information from the student sample than interviews. The interview data from the student sample would be so huge that it would be impossible to analyse them within the time frame of the current research. However, since the number of principals and other educational authorities who participated in the study was small, interviews were found to be more beneficial to obtain in-depth data from them. Besides questionnaires and interviews, a research instrument which enabled the researcher to gather live data from natural situations (Cohen et al., 2007) were lesson observations. The students and teachers provided in the questionnaires their views on their learning and teaching experiences and various problems they encountered in the classrooms. In the lesson observations the teacher and student behaviours were used as a way of verifying or

contradicting what had been reported in the questionnaires and teacher interviews. As the classes observed also included students who had not participated in a questionnaire, the lesson observations were also used as a way of throwing further light on the challenges encountered in the teaching and learning of English. Hence, in relation to the current study the mixed methods research offered the participants effective ways of furnishing the data according to their status (see Table 14) and circumstances.

Having defined mixed methods research and explained why it was used in the current study, the following section explains the strategy of the research used in the current study.

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