Combining Methods in Educational and Social Research (Conducting Educational Research)

207 Pages·2004·1.36 MB·English

by  Stephen Gorard

Combining Methods in Educational
and Social Research
Conducting educational research
Series editor: Harry Torrance, University of Sussex
This series is aimed at research students in education and those under-
taking related professional, vocational and social research. It takes
currentmethodologicaldebatesseriouslyandofferswell-informedadvice
tostudentsonhowtorespondtosuchdebates.Booksintheseriesreview
and engage with current methodological issues, while relating such
issues to the sorts of decisions which research students have to make
when designing, conducting and writing up research. Thus the series
both contributes to methodological debate and has practical orientation
by providing students with advice on how to engage with such debate
anduseparticularmethodsintheirwork.Seriesauthorsareexperienced
researchers and supervisors. Each book provides students with insights
into a different form of educational research while also providing them
withthecriticaltoolsandknowledgenecessarytomakeinformedjudge-
ments about the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches.
Current titles:
Tony Brown and Liz Jones: Action, Research and Postmodernism
Mairead Dunne, John Pryor and Paul Yates: Becoming a Researcher
Stephen Gorard with Chris Taylor: Combining Methods in Educational and
Social Research
Joe Kincheloe and Kathleen Berry: Rigour and Complexity in Educational
Research
Maggie MacLure: Discourse in Educational and Social Research
Richard Pring and Gary Thomas: Evidence-Based Practice in Education
John Schostak: Interviewing and Representation in Qualitative Research
JohnSchostak:Understanding,DesigningandConductingQualitativeResearch
in Education
Lyn Yates: What Does Good Educational Research Look Like?
Combining Methods in Educational
and Social Research
Stephen Gorard
with Chris Taylor
Open University Press
Open University Press
McGraw-Hill Education
McGraw-Hill House
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Maidenhead
Berkshire
England
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email: [email protected]
world wide web:www.openup.co.uk
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First published 2004
Copyright #StephenGorard and ChrisTaylor
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A catalogue record ofthis bookis availablefrom theBritish Library
ISBN 0335213073 (pb)0335213081 (hb)
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Typeset by YHTLtd
Printed intheUK byBell &Bain Ltd.,Glasgow
Contents
Preface vii
1 A third methodological movement: challenging the
dominance of single methods 1
2 Simple numeric and textual data: querying the divide 13
3 Triangulation and combining methods across studies 42
4 The ‘new’ political arithmetic: a policy case study 58
5 Understanding life histories by varying the scale 78
6 The interplay of scale and type: complex interventions 92
7 The promise of design studies 100
8 What is the current prevalence of combined methods
research? 113
9 Theory as a barrier to the combination of research methods 143
10 Prospects for the ‘new’ education and social science
researcher 166
References 177
Index 193

Preface
Why have we written a book about combining research approaches in
education and social science at this time? Because there is growing
interestinthepossibilities,asdissatisfactiongrowswiththelimitationsof
traditional mono-method studies – all very well in their way but unable
to address fully the most complex research questions – and with the
methodological schism and internecine ‘warfare’ that divides our field.
This interest is clear among the funders of research. It is exemplified by
two projects funded in 2002/3 as part of the ESRC Research Methods
Programme, both of which are devoted to exploring issues of combining
methods – specifically those methods traditionally termed ‘qualitative’
and ‘quantitative’. For more information on these, see www.prw.le.
ac.uk/research/qualquan/andwww.ccsr.ac.uk/methods/projects/posters/
bryman.shtml.
ThenewtrainingguidelinesforESRC-fundedresearchstudents(1+3)
requireforthefirsttimethatallstudentsareabletoundertakerelatively
high-level tasks within both traditions of research. The combination of
suchmethodsisalsooneoffiveparticularprioritiesfortheESRC-funded
Teachingand LearningResearch ProgrammeCapacity Building Network
(see www.cf.ac.uk/socsi/capacity).
However,thereareveryfewsourcesthattheinterestedresearchercan
turn to for practical guidance on the conduct of research that employs
multiple mixed methods. This book provides a conceptual and metho-
dological guide to mixing or combining methods in education research
(and in social science more widely), by situating, outlining and evalu-
ating methods that are currently used both within and beyond these
fields. The book is not easy reading, will not be comfortable for some
existing researchers, and certainly cannot be expected to overcome the
convictions ofthoseresearcherswhoareavowedlymono-methodic.But
perhaps we should not expect anyone who believes that it is impossible
viii Preface
tocombinemethodstobereadingthisbookanyway.Wehope,ifnothing
else, that it gives many others an opportunity to think about mixing the
simpleuseofnumberswiththeirqualitativework,orstrengtheningtheir
numeric data with textual or visual illustrations. We believe that all
research has an overarching logic and that, within this, the fruitful
combination of methods is possible. We develop the idea of the ‘new’
education researcher, for whom the combination of approaches is a
representation of a diverse skills base, and part of the development of a
fuller multi-perspective on any research topic, rather than a matter of
ideological or theoretical allegiance.
The authors would like to express their thanks to many colleagues,
especially John Fitz, Jonathan Gorard, Eamonn Kelly, Laurence Moore,
KenPrandy,GarethRees,KarenRoberts,KatieRushforth,BarrySloane,
Emma Smith, Harry Torrance and Patrick White for their help in for-
mulating some of the ideas in this book.
1
A third methodological movement:
challenging the dominance of single
methods
The purpose of this book is relatively simple given the potentially com-
plexnatureofthesubjectmatter.Itisaimedatanaudienceofupcoming
educationandsocialscienceresearchers,andsuggestswaysinwhichitis
practicalandrelativelyeasytocombineevidencecollectedusingavariety
of different methods. The chief focus is on the combination of evidence
derived from both what are traditionally termed ‘qualitative’ and
‘quantitative’ methods. This is in distinction to the wider issues, such as
those about the triangulation of methods of data collection within a
qualitative tradition, as discussed by Meijer et al. (2002), or what
Tashakkori and Teddlie (2003) refer to as ‘multi-methods approaches’
using two methods from the same earlier traditions (e.g. ethnography
andcase study), orcross-disciplinary triangulation of thekind envisaged
by Scholz and Tietje (2002). The book assumes that the reader is inter-
ested in the possibility of combining methods, and therefore considers
such simple combination to be feasible. It is not intended here to per-
suade avowedly mono-method researchers, who use the same method
againandagain,thattheyhavesomethingtogainfromusingmorethan
one method, if they do not, for example, believe that both ‘qualitative’
and ‘quantitative’ methods are valuable in their own right. Nor is it
intendedtodealattheoutsetwithsweepingclaimssuchasthoseofSale
etal. (2002: 43) that: ‘Becausethe twoparadigmsdo not study thesame
phenomena, quantitative and qualitative methods cannot be combined
for cross-validation or triangulation purposes’.
The premise of the book is that both approaches have strengths, and
thatevengreaterstrengthcancomefromtheirappropriatecombination.
Itisnotthepurposeofthisbooktobecomeinvolvedinaconsiderationof
thedifferencesinterminologyusedbyvariouscommentators–wemean
by ‘combining methods’ the same thing as ‘mixed methods research’
(Teddlie and Tashakkori 2003), and sometimes ‘multi-method’ or