Mixed Methods 2009 : Workshops

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A step-by-step guide to publishing mixed research articles with Professor Anthony Onwuegbuzie and Professor Kathleen M T Collins
In many higher education institutions, faculty publishing is interpreted not only as an index of productivity that is used to make decisions about tenure, promotion, and pay increases, but it is also interpreted as an index of departmental, collegial, and institutional prestige. Because research is for the most part, a self-taught, and self-mastered activity that is minimally discussed—if at all—beyond its findings, it can be difficult for faculty members to find solutions to the difficulties they encounter trying to establish and/or maintain an active research agenda. This is even more the case for faculty members who strive to publish mixed research. Thus, our workshop’s purpose is to provide a step-by-step guide to publishing mixed research articles. The main objectives are to help researchers to initiate a research agenda, determine the “publishability” of research topics, select the best manuscript outlet, write an appropriate response to the editor’s request for a revision, and understand ethical issues in publishing. Also, we will present a framework for addressing standards and guidelines for conducting and reporting mixed research. This workshop will be interactive, with participants being encouraged to ask questions on these topics and other areas of concern. s and keynote addresses at regional, national, and international conferences and venues. He is Editor of Educational Researcher and Co-Editor of Research in the Schools.

Kathleen M T Collins is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Arkansas, USA. She has presented more than 60 conference papers, co-presented numerous mixed research workshops in the USA and South Africa, and published more than 40 refereed articles and several book chapters. Currently, she is a Guest Editor of a special issue on Mixed Methods for Novice Researchers that will appear in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches. Between them Anthony and Kathleen have authored numerous book / encyclopedia chapters and articles on mixed research across several disciplines, including the forthcoming textbook Mixed Research: A Step-by-Step Guide (in press) (Taylor and Francis) and an edited book Toward a Broader Understanding of Stress and Coping: Mixed Methods Approaches (in press) (Information Age Publishing). Recently, the mixed research study co-authored by Anthony, Kathleen and colleagues that was published in American Educational Research Journal (AERJ) was identified as the most downloaded article in AERJ in 2007.

Quality in Mixed Methods Research with Professor Alan Bryman
Professor Alan Bryman is Professor of Organizational and Social Research, School of Management, University of Leicester, UK. He is author/co-author of numerous articles and books, including Social Research Methods (third edition, 2008) and Business Research Methods (with Emma Bell, revised edition, 2007). He is co-editor of The SAGE Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods (Sage, 2004); Handbook of Data Analysis (Sage, 2004); and The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Research Methods (Sage, 2009). Research interests include methodology, leadership, and organizational analysis. His current research interests include mixed methods research and leadership in higher education.

Transformative mixed methods research with Professor Donna M Mertens
This short workshop will focus on the contextual and methodological considerations in designing and conducting research in diverse cultural contexts. It will be geared to meet the needs of researchers who have responsibility for research in communities that reflect diversity in terms of culture, race/ethnicity, religion, language, gender, and disability. Participants will be able to deepen their understanding of basic concepts and principles of research by extending these to include dimensions of cultural diversity. Drawing on recent scholarship in the areas of transformative work, mixed methods, and cultural competence, participants will 1) critically examine selected research paradigms, models, and theories to identify the underlying assumptions with relevance to work in culturally diverse communities; 2) identify different methodological approaches for appropriate data collection; and 3) discuss critical issues associated with selecting the design and use of mixed methods research in diverse settings.

Donna M Mertens is a Professor in the Department of Educational Foundations and Research at Gallaudet University in Washington DC, she teaches research methods and program evaluation to deaf and hearing students at graduate level. A Past-President (1998) and Board member of the American Evaluation Association, she provided leadership for its Building Diversity Initiative and International Committee over a seven year period. She is the author of numerous journal publications and has authored or edited several books, including Transformative Research and Evaluation (in press, Guilford Press), Handbook of Social Research Ethics (with P. Ginsberg as co-editor, in press, Sage), Research and Evaluation in Education and Psychology: Integrating Diversity with Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods (Sage, 2005), Research and Evaluation Methods in Special Education, (with John McLaughlin as co-author, Corwin, 2004), and Research and Inequality (with Carole Truman & Beth Humphries as co-editors, Taylor & Francis, 2000).

Conducting mixed methods research and the practice of research with Professor John W Creswell and Dr Vicki L Plano Clark
During this one-day workshop John W Creswell and Vicki L Plano Clark of the Office of Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA, will present a morning session on a discussion of the current status of mixed methods research and the designs being used to conduct this form of inquiry. Attention will be given to contending definitions for mixed methods, the philosophical foundations used today, and the types of research designs being presented in the literature. Creswell and Plano Clark will rely on some of the material compiled in their book, Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research (Sage Publications, 2007). The afternoon session will be a discussion with participants about the types of issues they are experiencing as they conduct mixed methods research designs. A recent article on methodological issues (Creswell, Plano Clark, & Garrett, in press in Advances in Mixed Methods Research, M. Bergman, Editor, Sage Publications) will be distributed in advance of the workshop, and it will frame the discussion. Participants are invited to bring 20 copies of a one-page abstract of their mixed methods projects to share and participants will be encouraged to offer their views about the practice of conducting a mixed methods study.

John W Creswell is a Professor of Educational Psychology and teaches courses and writes about qualitative methodology and mixed methods research. He has been at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for 30 years and has authored 11 books, many of which focus on research design, qualitative research, and mixed methods research. In addition, he Co-Directs the Office of Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research (OQMMR) at Nebraska that provides support for scholars incorporating qualitative and mixed methods research into projects for extramural funding. He serves as the founding Co-Editor for the Sage journal, Journal of Mixed Methods Research, and he has been an Adjunct Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan and assisted investigators in the health sciences on the research methodology for their projects. He has recently been selected to be a Senior Fulbright Scholar and will be working in South Africa in October, 2008, bringing mixed methods to social scientists and to developers of documentaries about AIDS victims and families. When he grows up he would like to play the piano in a piano bar and treat patrons to “mood” music.

Vicki L Plano Clark is Co-Director of the Office of Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research and a Research Assistant Professor in the Quantitative, Qualitative, and Psychometric Methods program housed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA. She teaches research methods courses, including foundations of research and mixed methods research, and serves as Managing Editor for the Journal of Mixed Methods Research. She specializes in mixed methods research designs and her research interests include the procedural issues that arise when implementing different designs as well as disciplinary contexts for conducting research. She has authored and co-authored over 25 articles, chapters, and books including Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research (with John W Creswell, Sage, 2007) and The Mixed Methods Reader (with John W Creswell, Sage, 2008).

Practical Approaches to Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Methods David L. Morgan, Ph.D.
This workshop will concentrate on the practical, rather than the philosophical issues involved in combining methods. In particular, it will focus on the various research designs that are commonly used in combining qualitative and quantitative methods. The workshop will thus begin with a lecture presentation on the various options that are available as research designs, and how to evaluate those designs in terms of your own research goals.

The majority of the workshop will then be devoted to addressing specific issues that the participants are facing in their own research. Consequently, this session will be of most value to those who are either in the process of designing their research or in the early stages of conducting it. This discussion of the practical issues involved in participants’ own research will use these examples to consider the wide range of possibilities for combining qualitative and quantitative methods.

David L. Morgan is a University Professor at Portland State University where he is also affiliate with the Department of Sociology. He is the author of three books and numerous articles on focus group research. In addition to his work on focus groups, Dr. Morgan also has extensive experience with quantitative research, including evaluation research and surveys. His current interests center on issues in research design, with an emphasis on topics related to combining qualitative and quantitative methods.

Feminist Approaches to Mixed Methods Research Sharlene Janice Nagy Hesse-Biber
Methods are "tools" or techniques researchers employ in order to answer specific research questions; they are not inherently feminist or non-feminist. What makes feminist research "feminist" lies in the perspectives and research questions that focus on women's issues and concerns. Feminist research addresses questions that expose power, difference, silence and oppression, with the goal of moving toward a more just society for women and other oppressed groups.This workshop will highlight the ways in feminists theoretical perspectives inform the way mixed methods is currently practiced. We will address the following questions:

How do feminists integrate mixed methods into their work?
What are the assumptions of the social reality do they make when mixing up methods and paradigms?
Are there some feminist perspectives that uniquely lend themselves to mixed methods designs?
We will provide participants with with some specific examples of different ways feminists utilized mixed methods approaches and will also demonstrate how computer software programs like HyperRESEARCH (www.researchware.com) can facilitate this process.

Sharlene Janice Nagy Hesse-Biber, PhD, is Professor of Sociology and the Director of Women’s Studies at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. She has published widely on the impact of sociocultural factors on women’s body image, including her book, Am I Thin Enough Yet? The Cult of Thinness and the Commercialization of Identity (Oxford, 1996), which was selected as one of Choice magazine’s best academic books for 1996. She recently published The Cult of Thinness (Oxford, 2007). She is the co author of Working Women in America: Split Dreams (Oxford, 2005), She is co editor of Feminist Approaches to Theory and Methodology: An Interdisciplinary Reader (Oxford, 1999), Approaches to Qualitative Research: A Reader on Theory and Practice (Oxford, 2004), and Emergent Methods in Social Research (Sage, 2006). She is also the coauthor of The Practice of Qualitative Research (Sage, 2006). She recently edited the Handbook of Feminist Research: Theory and Praxis (Sage, 2007) which was selected as one of the Critics’ Choice Award winners by the American Education Studies Association, and was also chosen as one of Choice Magazines's Outstanding Academic titles for 2007. She is co-editor of the Handbook of Emergent Methods (Guilford, 2008). She contributed to the Handbook of Grounded Theory (Sage, 2008) and editor of the forthcoming Handbook of Emergent Technologies for Social Research (Oxford, 2009). She is co-developer of the software program HyperRESEARCH, a computer-assisted program for analyzing qualitative data, and the new transcription tool HyperTRANSCRIBE . A fully functional free demo of these programs is available at www.researchware.com One will also find a free teaching edition for the programs on this site.

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