Mixed Methods

Adamson, J., Gooberman-Hill, R., Woolhead, G., & Donovan, J. (2004). “Questerviews”: using questionnaires in qualitative interviews as a method of integrating qualitative and quantitative health services research. Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, 9(3), 139–145. https://doi.org/10.1258/1355819041403268

This article discusses a qualitative method known as “questerviews”. Using this method, participants are asked to fill out standardized questionnaires while being audio recorded. “Questerviews” can best be used in projects where sensitive or controversial information was being researched and greater context was needed outside direct survey questions. (AER)

Anderson, L., Stuttaford, M., & Vostanis, P. (2006). A family support service for homeless children and parents: user and staff perspectives. Child & Family Social Work, 11(2), 119–127. https://doi-org.ezproxy.uvm.edu/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2006.00399.x

This research uses a mixed methods approach to study homeless parents and children who are using community systems as means of support. It looks at the experience and treatment of those seen as underprivileged and how the facilities are used for peoples specific needs. Useful for someone looking into a more participatory response example from a population. EK

Barbeiro, A., & Spini, D. (2017). Calendar interviewing: a mixed methods device for a biographical approach to migration. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 14(1), 81–107. DOI: 10.1080/14780887.2016.1249581 (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316082789_Calendar_interviewing_a_mixed_methods_device_for_a_biographical_aproach_to_migration)

This article describes a mixed-methods approach to collecting biographical data by combining life calendars, questionnaires, and an interview guide for collecting life stories. This study uses these methods to collect migrants’ narratives about their lives and social worlds, and major influences on their life trajectories. This study focuses on Portuguese immigrants in Switzerland and how institutions involved with immigrant settlement and integration affected their life trajectories. It describes the strengths of this technique based on this case study, and this could be useful for research projects based on collecting autobiographical data or analyzing the impacts of social programs on peoples’ lives over long periods of time. (H.D.)

Barriage, S. (2018). Task-centered activities as an approach to data collection in research with children and youth. Library & Information Science Research (07408188), 40(1), 1–8. https://doi-org.ezproxy.uvm.edu/10.1016/j.lisr.2018.01.001

This article takes in information of children and technology. It is mixed methods, but does use diaries/journals to use children’s participation to log and tell about their experience. It talks briefly about the effectiveness of certain methods over others and comments on the practicality of using diaries with children because they are seemingly gendered. Useful for someone looking into modern observations of the influences of technology as well as looking at the participatory observations of them. EK

Bartlett, R. (2012). Modifying the Diary Interview Method to Research the Lives of People With Dementia. Qualitative Health Research, 22(12), 1717–1726. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732312462240

In this article, Bartlett and her research team recruited 16 people with dementia who were involved in activism to participate in this study for one month. They conducted pre-diary interviews with each participant, a focus group with participants involved in the same campaign group, and then provided them all with a diary-keeping pack. Participants had the choice of what form their diary took: photo, audio, written, or a combination of two. While they were keeping their diaries, participants were contacted throughout the month so researchers could answer any questions they had, and provide guidance and encouragement as necessary. Afterwards, post diary interviews were conducted where participants could share their experiences and discuss their diary entries. This article might be useful for a researcher looking to involve participants with dementia more in the research process through a flexible approach. B.F.

Bossetta, M. (2017). Fighting fire with fire: Mainstream adoption of the populist political style in the 2014 Europe debates between Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage. British Journal of Politics & International Relations, 19(4), 715–734. DOI: 10.1177/1369148117715646 (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317989344_Fighting_fire_with_fire_Mainstream_adoption_of_the_populist_political_style_in_the_2014_Europe_debates_between_Nick_Clegg_and_Nigel_Farage)

This article used a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze transcripts of debates between two candidates prior to the 2014 British Parliament elections. It discusses how the methods for analyzing transcripts of conversations can differ from those used for written texts. It also demonstrates methods for examining how discourse changes over time by analyzing differences in candidates’ rhetorical styles in successive debates. This article could be useful for designing studies around longitudinal discourse analysis, and could be used as an example of combining qualitative and quantitative text analysis. (H.D.)

Butler, Toby. (2006). “A Walk of Art: The Potential of the Sound Walk as Practice in Cultural Geography.” Social & Cultural Geography 7(6): 889-908.http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=8f6fa143-5ceb-4c7a-a73be85382a83e66%40sessionmgr4010&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=24925086

In this article, Toby Butler explores the qualitative research method of sound walks, which he defines as “walks in the outside world guided by recorded sound and voice”. He provides examples of research projects including sound walks in London and New York. Then, he reflects on the process and experience of the project. Butler emphasizes the potential of sound walks to portray more context of a location they are studying. The sound walk method is an accessible way to present site-specific information. This article could be useful for a social or cultural geographer who is interested in studying sound and space especially in an outside environment. VC

Ebersöhn, L., & Loots, T. (2017). Teacher agency in challenging contexts as a consequence of social support and resource management. International Journal of Educational Development, 53, 80–91.https://doi-org.ezproxy.uvm.edu/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2016.11.005

This article is a mixed media approach to how South African schools’ teachers are engaging with helping their under-funded education system. It demonstrated the activism that goes into the individual but also the faculties as a whole. How they deal with problems that arise and how they view themselves in relation to them is studied through photography, diaries and many other participatory methods. Useful for someone looking into various structural looks at education and also seeing participatory observations of those that are in them. EK

Elsawah, S., Guillaume, J. H. A., Filatova, T., Rook, J. & Jakeman, A. J. (2014). A methodology for  eliciting, representing, and analyzing stakeholder knowledge for decision making on complex socio-ecological systems: From cognitive maps to agent-based models. Journal of  Environmental Management 15: 500-516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.11.028

Elsawah and colleagues outline methods for creating individual and collective cognitive maps, that represent how an individual perceives a specific issue or system. The authors’ research is focused on evaluating individual stakeholder decision-making processes and policy impacts of groundwater management in Australia. They create cognitive maps using an Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) approach to evaluate how “agents” in socio-ecological systems change in response to one another and the surrounding environment. This paper is useful for those interested in mental model mapping approaches and data visualization techniques. JB

Frels, R. K., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2013). Administering Quantitative Instruments With Qualitative Interviews: A Mixed Research Approach. Journal of Counseling & Development, 91(2), 184–194. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2013.00085.x

This article covers various quantitative techniques associated with mixed-methods interviews, as well as examining mixed analyses in conjunction with this topic. It is framed as a general-purpose examination of the methods to improve the triangulation, complementarity, development, initiation, and expansion of mixed-methods research. It includes one case study where the method is used with school mentors to better understand their experiences. This article would be useful for anyone interested in mixed methods research, or someone who wants to improve knowledge gained from the qualitative interview process. (JD)

Hadad, A., Gafni, N., Moshinsky, A., Turvall, E., Ziv, A., & Israeli, A. (2016). The multiple mini-interviews as a predictor of peer evaluations during clinical training in medical school. Medical Teacher, 38(11), 1172–1179. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2016.1181730

This study centers on the use of Multiple Mini-Interviews (MMI) is an admissions tool being used for more than a decade by medical schools worldwide to assess non-cognitive skills. The study aims at evaluating the predictive validity of the MMI and two questionnaires when compared with the peer assessment tool. What was found at the end of the analysis of the data collected was that it proved that Multiple Mini-Interviews approach was a valid tool for evaluating the level of medical schools, and therefore, its students and preparation. (RR)

Hall, T., Lashua, B., & Coffey, A. (2008). “Sound and the Everyday in Qualitative Research.” Qualitative Inquiry, 14(6): 1019 1040https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/10778004073120

This article highlights the value of noise to qualitative research, as it is shapes everyday lived experiences for most people. The negative connotation of noise as an interruption or disturbance is rejected. A “soundwalking” informal interview structure is explored. For example, the soundwalking method could involve the participants walking the researchers around their local neighborhoods, picking their own preferred routes, and talking about the area. This example provided in the article combined walking interviews and soundscapes to study young people in noisy everyday settings, because both the interview and the background sounds in the neighborhood contributed to the research. This article would be useful for someone looking to produce a research project exploring space and sound using mixed methods. VC

Jennings, A. A., Foley, T., Walsh, K. A., Coffey, A., Browne, J. P., & Bradley, C. P. (2018). General practitioners’ knowledge, attitudes, and experiences of managing behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia: A mixed-methods systematic review. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 33(9), 1163–1176. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.4918

Jennings et al. performed a systematic review of both quantitative and qualitative studies on GP’s experiences of managing BPSD. The researchers used a meta-ethnographic approach for this study by using the existing source material to develop original interpretations of the findings and context of the research. They analyzed a wide range of issues including unmet primary care needs, justification of antipsychotic prescribing, and the pivotal role of families. This article might be useful for a project seeking to analyze and improve the long-term management of people with dementia in a primary care setting. The information here can be used to inform the design and development of interventions to support GPs managing BPSD, which would improve the quality of care provided to people with dementia as a result. B.F.

Kelley, R. A., Jakeman, A. J., Barreteau, O., Borsuk, M. E., ElSawah, S., Hamilton, S. H., Henrikson, H. J., Kuikka, S., Maier, H. R., Rizzoli, A. E., Delden, H. V., Voinov, A. A. (2013). Selecting among five common modelling approaches for integrated environmental assessment and management. Environmental Modelling & Software 47 : 159-181.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2013.05.005

This paper outlines how systems dynamics, Bayesian networks, coupled component models, agent-based models and knowledge-based models deal with considerations of time, space and definitions of integration. The shortcomings, strengths, and potential applications of each of these five types of models are discussed, and an extensive list of studies that employ each of them is provided. This is a good resource for those considering modeling and network analysis as a method to study socio-ecological systems. JB

Kolkman, M. J., Kok, M., van der Veen A. (2005). Mental model mapping as a new tool to analyze the use of information in decision-making in integrated water management. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 30(4-5): 31-332. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2005.01.002

Kolkman and colleagues examine construction of problem-solving cycles and the ways that epistemologies frame these cycles by investigating how mental models are created on individual stakeholder levels. They argue that the unstructured nature of issues being dealt with in complicated socio-ecological systems can result in many mental models – leading to inadequate sharing of knowledge and points of conflict. This article is useful for researchers investigating drivers of decision-making in complex socio-ecological systems. JB

L., … De Allegri, M. (2014). Protocol for the process evaluation of interventions combining performance-based financing with health equity in Burkina Faso. Implementation Science, 9(1), 1–26. https://doi-org.ezproxy.uvm.edu/10.1186/s13012-014-0149-1

This document takes a mixed methods approach using in-depth interviews, participatory observation, research diaries, and questionnaires. It uses these methods to relate to different health care issues in West Africa (specifically how healthcare is financed).  Useful for someone looking for an example of both ethnographic research and also an example of examination of various healthcare systems. EK

Olejniczak, Jędrzej. (2018). Using corpora to aid qualitative text analysis. An interdisciplinary approach.. Journal of Education Culture and Society. 9. 154-164. 10.15503/jecs20182.154.164. (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331990570_Using_corpora_to_aid_qualitative_text_analysis_An_interdisciplinary_approach)

This paper describes various ways to supplement qualitative text analysis with corpus-based analysis tools. It provides a basic overview of how to use wordlists, concordances, dispersion plots, and keywords, and describes the potential limitations of these methods. It aims to build an understanding of how to incorporate quantitative computer text analysis in order to enhance discoveries drawn from qualitative analysis. This paper could serve as an introduction to corpus analysis for researchers without any prior experience in using these methods, and it could provide insights into mixed-methods approaches to text analysis. (H.D.)

Phillipson, L., & Hammond, A. (2018). More Than Talking: A Scoping Review of Innovative Approaches to Qualitative Research Involving People With Dementia. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 17(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406918782784

Phillipson and Hammond explored and analyzed the innovative methods (usually methods other than interviews) being used to enhance the involvement of people with dementia in qualitative research published since 2010. Ethnographic observation, photo elicitation, visual and sensory adaptations to interviews, and participatory techniques that prioritized hands-on involvement were frequently used. Through this research process, people with dementia became conversation partners, storytellers, designers, filmmakers, photographers, analysists, meaning makers, and co-researchers. This article may be useful for a researcher interested in exploring more visual methods as opposed to text-based ones, or interested in working with populations who are often excluded from research and approached through the deficit-based pathological lens commonly used in medical research. B.F.

Ridde, V., Turcotte-Tremblay, A.-M., Souares, A., Lohmann, J., Zombré, D., Koulidiati, J.Scott, Darius (2018): Black Emplacement in Rural North Carolina, Social & Cultural Geography, DOI: 10.1080/14649365.2017.1413205. https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/record/uuid:d568fb92-8cb0-4007-9236-e25ea1707f19

In this article, the author uses archival research to explore community member narratives in rural North Carolina. The author uses oral histories, archival research, and in-depth readings of recorded prison songs in historically black communities across the state. The purpose of this research is to understand black geographic spaces and how they were created. Black geography is an interdisciplinary study that draws on the importance of narratives and qualitative research in order to understand the culture. Using this data, this article discusses the ways in which the black communities were created and their impacts. This type of research and this project are incredibly useful in discussing spatial geography and black geographies. KSBB

Teachman, G., & Gibson, B. E. (2013). Children and Youth With Disabilities: Innovative Methods for Single Qualitative Interviews. Qualitative Health Research, 23`(2), 264-274. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732312468063

This article discusses three methodological approaches to working with children with disabilities (and children more broadly) which are: working with parents, developing a toolkit of customizable interview techniques, and considerations for navigating researcher-child power dynamics. Within the methods toolkit, Teachman and Gibson discuss the use of warm-up activities, role play with puppets, vignettes about imaginary children, cartoon captioning, photographs depicting children’s geographies and sentence prompts. RC

Valentine, G., & Sadgrove, J. (2012). Lived difference: A narrative account of spatiotemporal processes of social differentiation. Environment and Planning A, 44, 2049–2063. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/43b7/d0e74c9c3f54046ab59be6b6b8fe671a5724.pdf

In this article the authors use empirical research to understand the process of social differentiation. However, they use case studies and narratives in order to examine changes over time as well as the marginalization of self or others. As they discuss private and public spaces, the authors look at 60 individual cases and interviews and comprise a timeline, audio diary, and semi-structured interviews in order to create these narratives. They use data from people with many different races and backgrounds in order to discuss the process of social differentiation through the eyes of life stories. The use or narratives, diaries, and interviews was crucial to their research. This research is useful for looking at individual case studies and narratives when discussing social differentiations. KSBB

White, M. J., Judd, M. D., Poliandri, S. (2012). Illumination with a dim bulb? What do social scientists learn by employing qualitative data analysis software in the service of multimethod designs? Sociological Methodology 42: 43-76. DOI: 10.1177/0081175012461233.

The paper discusses the methodological strengths of combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, and points out how differences in frameworks associated with different approaches must be carefully considered when used together. The authors discuss the use of NVivo for generating matrices to explore links between codes and to provide the basis for quantitative assessments using narrative qualitative data. This article is useful for any researcher interested in conducting quantitative assessments of qualitative data. JB