A rationale for this studya) Deciding on the type of designb) Identifying the design approach

to usec) Matching the design to the

study’s problem, purpose and questions

d) Being clear about the reason for adopting Mixed Methods

(Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011)

a) Deciding on the type of design.

•This refers to the decision the researcher has to make about using qualitative and quantitative methods before the research is started (FIXED MIXED METHODS DESIGN) or adds a second method after the study has begun (EMERGENT MIXED METHODS DESIGN). (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011)

b) Identifying the design approach to use

•There are several approaches to MM design that have been proposed by various authors in the field.

Greene, Caracelli & Graham (1989)

•Complementary•Development•Expansion• Initiation•Triangulation

Tashakkori & Teddlie (1998)

•Equivalent status•Dominant – Less Dominant•Multilevel use

Creswell & Plano Clark (2011)•Typology based: a design which already exists in classification

Convergent parallelExplanatory sequentialExploratory sequentialEmbeddedTransformativeMultiphase

•Dynamic: focuses on a process that takes into consideration and interrelates aspects of research designs instead of selecting a design from a pre-existing classification

c) Matching the design to the study’s problem, purpose & questions.

• “The importance of the research problem and questions is a key principle of mixed methods research design. This perspective stems from the pragmatic foundations for conducting mixed methods research where the notion of ‘what works’ applies well to selecting the methods that work best to address a study’s problem and questions”

• (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011:60)

d) Being clear about the reason for adopting mixed methods

• Identify explicitly the reason(s) for mixing quantitative and qualitative methods in your study.• My study has adopted a MM approach

because the research questions constructed for the first and second phase of the research were different and therefore they required different approaches.• Bryman (2012) lists this reason as one of the

valid reasons for a researcher to adopt a MM approach.