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RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND RESEARCH DESIGNS

THE COMPLEXITY OF THE SOCIAL WORLD Gordon Graham: It's my pleasure to introduce some gentlemen that are joining us here at Capella University and on behalf of Capella University, I would like to thank Dr. John Creswell for joining us and Dr. Ron Shope. Dr. Creswell is a Clifton Institute professor and also a professor of educational psychology at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. And Dr. Ron Shope is a research associate professor also at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. And we're also being joined today by Dr. Bruce Francis, a senior faculty at Capella University. And my name is Gordon Graham. I'm an instructor in research methodology and my �eld of expertise is introducing learners to the mysteries of educational research when they �rst begin to study that particular subject. But I'd like to begin by asking Dr. Creswell to help us understand some of the challenges, some of the intimidating aspects of �rst beginning to encounter research methodology. It's been my experience, Dr. Creswell, as one who very often touches learners for the �rst time in their journey as they begin to explore this �eld of inquiry that they �nd it quite intimidating. In some ways they think it's "the" course that they are going to be challenged by, and yet, once we get into it a bit, those source of concerns begin to disappear. Very early on in their journey into an investigation of research methodology, I found that learners make a couple of early discoveries. One of the �rst things they discover is that the social world that we're all embedded in and that we move and live within is a remarkably complex structure. We usually only see and experience it at super�cial levels in every day life. And often I �nd that learners are quite shocked to discover that others see and experience it quite di�erently. That they view it through a di�erent lens. That's one of the things that I �nd learners discover early on when they study research methodology, the complexity of the social world. They also begin to discover that many of their assumptions that they carry about the nature of the social world are quite incomplete or, worse yet, they might be completely erroneous. And some of the every day ways they have of simplifying life and functioning within the social world begin to fall apart. Now they've just started a research methodology course. These sorts of things are happening to them. They're discovering complexity, they're realizing their assumptions may not be holding up too well, and just about then, they're asked to identify a research topic and also a research problem that they could begin to investigate within that topic. What advice can you o�er to these overwhelmed research methodology learners to help them �nd meaningful research topics that are relevant to them in their journey, they're a part of the complex social world. And more than that, what advice can you give to the novice researcher so that they can understand what constitutes a researchable problem.

Dr. John Creswell: This is a great question. Let me speak �rst to the overwhelmed aspect. In my introductory research courses I often have students that are being introduced to research for the �rst time. And they come from the world of business and action oriented, school settings, where they really are being introduced to a new topic. And I really think that the process of research is inherent in many things we do in our lives. For example, balancing a checkbook. You know, we ask our self what is the problem with my funds being de�cient this month. And then how can I go about correcting this. And then gathering some data by looking at the website for the bank account. And then analyzing what they see and coming up with some decision to answer that question. So it's not unusual for me to take a very practical example, like balancing a checkbook, or voting or any of the common activities in life and link them over to research to kind of get people a little bit familiar with it. Moving on to how do they come up with a meaningful research topic. I think there's a number of strategies, and probably at the top of my list would be to look into the literature. To read other research studies and try to look for gaps in the literature or inconsistencies or ways that it needs to be extended to a new population, new group of people. So if a student comes into my intro class and they're not reasonably well versed on what has

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been written about the broad topic that they're kind of interested in exploring, I think that's a de�ciency they need to work on. They need to get into the literature and see what other people have researched about the topic.

Some of the other ideas will be to work on a problem that's of personal interest they see in their work place, in their daily living. They might select a topic that's recommended by their advisor, an organization, a task force, a policy group. There are a number of ways to identify that type of general problem or topic of interest. And then the problem is an issue that needs to be addressed within that broad topic. And there again, what does the literature tell them needs to be researched. When you look at the end of good journal articles, there's often a section called Future Research, where other researchers actually recommend new areas of research that need to be done. So I advise them to look into those sections of journal articles, to come up with a speci�c problem that they might look at.

Gordon Graham: It's interesting, your comment that a lot of research is inherent in every day life. And I think that makes a strong connection with the learner who's just beginning this journey into research methodology. It it is a bit mysterious, it is a bit esoteric. Research methodology, just the title of the whole thing is a bit intimidating. But your opening comment was that it's a part of what we do in every day life. So you must see that there are certain skills or capabilities that we all carry as we begin to investigate research methodology. Do you �nd most learners once they get started on the journey become reasonably comfortable with it early on? Or what has been your experience along those lines?

Dr. Ron Shope: And I think that just to respond to that, I think yes, you do become reasonably con�dent, especially when you begin to build some skills and acquire some tools, such as courses like this, which really remove some of the mysteries. Bruce, you had said that one of the things that you do is to try to remove some of the mysteries. Actually research is not a mysterious process, but it's a process that really has some de�nite steps. And it actually is a process that even in our basic inquiry as John was mentioning, like balancing a checkbook. We actually go through many of those steps. I always look at researchers as being people who are very curious about problems. About things in life that they want to know more about. And I think this basic curiosity to say why did this happen, or, you know, what is going on here is really a way that we begin to get some motivation to engage in the research process. I always tell students that not only do we have to have a project that is one which comes from the literature, but also too it's something that we are personally interested in �nding out more about and being able to kind of dig in and look at. Because over the course of a dissertation, if we're really not interested in what we're doing, we're not going to be very motivated to learn more about that. And in my own research, it's basically asking simple questions and it's it's saying well here are the things that I'm really interested in knowing about. And I think that they're very, very important characteristic that a researcher needs to have.

Gordon Graham: One of the features that seems to cause some di�culties for our learners in getting to that point of connecting it to their real life is the di�erence in terminology. You have any tips or hints about how to overcome that, how to make the connection between the language that they read in their research text and the day to day life that they have to make the logical connection with?

Dr. John Creswell: Well, you know, that's a that's a tough one. I I do think that beginning researchers need to learn a new language. Now this doesn't mean that they've got to be conversational in it and that they can read in it at a high level like you'd study a foreign language. But I think there's basic vocabulary that needs to be emphasized in classes. For example, I often bring into my qualitative classes Thomas Schwanz's book, which is a dictionary of qualitative terms. And somebody will mention something in qualitative research and I'll just simply say well you know I don't think that's in the dictionary. And then during the break, I'll look it up to make sure I'm right or wrong on that one. Then Paul Volt has a sage publication which is a dictionary of quantitative terms. And so introducing them to the basic language, maybe not moving them immediately into a high level of

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conversational or readability types of skills, but at basic language, gotta be part of our research course. And I just simply say, you know, you are studying a language here, a new language, and there are certain terms that need to be de�ned. And we're going to keep re-emphasizing those terms over and over again so that they become part of your standard way of doing research and thinking about research. And usually by the end of the semester, they're with me. The know the language. They've got the basic vocabulary that they need. Take a term like variables. You know, if you're going to do quantitative research, you need to know what variables are. And so presenting a basic de�nition of that and then re-emphasizing it and using that language as we talk about research, slowly gets them accustomed to it. So I guess my only tip would be bring in a couple of dictionaries of terms and look things up from time to time. View it as if it were an actual language, a new language, that they are being introduced to.

Dr. Ron Shope: In that sense they can also, since they're working online, make good use of the internet in going up and using those terms that they don't understand as search terms. And going out and �nding out some basic de�nitions of those terms that are all over the web.

Gordon Graham: One of the ways that you identi�ed for �nding a research topic was to look for something that's emerging from the professional journey, from their work place. At Capella we work with the scholar practitioner modeling a great deal. And, of course, that would �t right in that model, where they take this opportunity in a research course to take a good look at something that's emerging out of their work place. It's been my experience that it's often di�cult for them to scale the size of the research project. It's quite easy to pick a topic and a problem and even a purpose that is just too broad and too wide in scale and scope for them to actually deal with. Do you have any advice on how to appropriately narrow down the focus of a research project?

Dr. Ron Shope: I use the question you start with a broad topic. And then begin to work with the student and say all right, as we think about it, so how are we actually going to research this topic. As many times in that particular process what'll happen is you'll end up coming down with a topic that really can be researched with the resources that they have. For example, can they gain access to the people and to the research sites. You know, how are they going to do this. But especially looking at the time that this would take, do they have the resources to actually do this, the physical and material resources, and some of the skills and that will start to begin sort of a narrowing process to kind of look for something within that broad area they �rst proposed to say well this is something that I can handle. I can actually kind of do this. And you know, it's not all bad to start out with something that's very broad, but then begin to say so what can I do, what I can handle within the time and the resources that I have to do this particular project. And especially like skills. You know, a person may choose a project which is very broad which really entails a lot of complex statistical analysis which they just don't have the skills or resources to do, yet you could �nd an area within that and say well what do you think we could do that is doable. And sometimes that's just a, you know, process between an advisor and the student that you sort of begin to work through to say well what can I do with what I have.

Dr. John Creswell: Ron, if I might, I think it's a great problem, and and most students do come into the class and they they're given the �rst assignment to come up with a research project. They have it characterized so broadly, that there's no way that they could realistically gather data and in a meaningful timeframe understand it. I use an idea from astronomy. I'll say something like I think you're presenting this out there at the solar system level. And we need to at least bring it down to the planetary or maybe down to planet Earth and bring it down into some manageable scope so that you can realistically talk to some people, gather some data and answer your questions. And so that's how I view that. And I think there's the opposite problem, which is going too narrow, so they're really not asking a very rich question. One that's in-depth, as well as going too broad. And so I see both ends of the continuum as people talk about their topics. Where my role as an instructor comes in to help think about well what would be manageable and to test the reality of whether they can collect adequate data and answer questions on the topic they're presenting.

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Gordon Graham: Doesn't the opposite problem that you refer to often arise when a learner wants to do a research project with regard to their own classroom or their own o�ce, and they're focused almost entirely on making improvements in their own situation, rather than in thinking about the broader questions that research needs to deal with. Is that where that opposite problem occurs?

Dr. John Creswell: Yes. They've got it so narrowed down to their own situation that there's really no possibility that the results might be used by anyone. I often say something like how somebody over in Terre Haute, Indiana, gonna use your study. And then they'll stay oh, you know, maybe maybe I do need to broaden it a little bit and think about it in a broader way and ask a little bit broader question.

ITERATION AND THE SIX STEP PROCESS Gordon Graham: I'd like to move us forward if I could. I I really appreciate the insight that we're gaining. Let us assume now that the learner is more comfortable with the whole notion of studying research methodology, has learned some of the language, has a topic in mind, has de�ned a reasonably sized research problem to address, and now they're gonna move forward. And Dr. Creswell, you've de�ned a six step process which I think most learners that are introduced to research methodology learn very, very thoroughly. They begin by identifying a research problem. They review the literature. They specify a purpose for research. They collect data. They analyze and interpret the data. And then they report and evaluate their research. Now, that six step process sounds, you know, so nicely organized and it seems as if it would �ow so exceptionally well. However, I've heard it described that research is a messy business. And I think what is meant by that statement is that any sort of a research plan that you launch on becomes disrupted by the complexities of scheduling the interviews or not getting enough of the surveys back or whatever it happens to disrupt that plan. Learners at the very beginning will have very idealistic view of how those six steps are supposed to unfold. And it's been my experience that real world research is not quite as linear as this six step process implies. I've seen researchers, and I myself have revisited some of the earlier steps. I've actually had to go right back to the very beginning after you know several weeks into the project to rethink things. So I would appreciate you giving us a sort of a picture of what real world research is like as opposed to the the nicely laid out systematic process described in the textbooks. What is it like out there in the real world of research? And I'm wondering, Dr. Shope, if you wouldn't mind giving us some of your insights into that.

Dr. Ron Shope: First of all, let me say the process which is outlined in the text is very important for new researchers to be able to grasp what the process is. Because actually I think people think that research is a mystical process, but yet the steps really kind of outline a basic process for how research is carried out. And eventually really all of those steps are carried out as you get to the �nal project. But you're right in pointing out that while it's very important to learn these steps and beginning researchers I think it's important that they begin to see this as a linear process. However, what they'll �nd out and I I would agree with you that many times that you are revisiting earlier steps. For example, I've done research projects where as I've been collecting data, all of a sudden I'll read a new article in the literature or come across something in the literature search that I say oh, that needs to go into the project. And so I'm now going back and interjecting things in the literature. The other thing that can happen, for example, if you're thinking about qualitative research. Some qualitative designs may analyze some of the data and then go back and collect more data. If you're looking at action research projects, for example, you may be doing an action research project where you're looking at an organizational issue and you have collected and analyzed some data and you're saying you know I still need some more data to do this. There's nothing wrong with looking at it that way. And many times it happens that way too. In fact, in most times that you may be going back, even in revisiting and re�ning your purpose statement. You may go back and you may say you know, let me sharpen this up just a little bit, even though you have are collecting data and maybe analyzing it and saying you know, I can really kind of sharpen this up just a little bit because this is exactly what you know is unfolding here. But I think it's important to take a look at in the beginning stages,

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look here are the pieces to the process. And I think it's important to emphasize the process in order for students to see this is what the process is of conducting research, but necessarily in practice yes, you're gonna go back and possibly revisit some of them and not do it exactly in the order that you have it in, because it is the way that many times it's done. But I think the thing to emphasize is research is a systematic process. And that's why I think it's important to take a look at these steps.

Dr. John Creswell: Let me add to what you're saying, because I think I agree with what you're saying, Ron, that for beginning researchers to sort out those steps and put them in some type of sequence is extremely helpful. But we then also need to say that it is a process of going from one step and back to another step. I taught a doctoral proposal class for many years. And very early in the class I would go to the board and I would put an equation on the board. R = F,F,F,B,B,F,B. And I say you know what this means? It means that research is forward- forward-forward-backward-backward-forward-backward. To get that notion of they're gonna have to go back and rework some things after they've moved ahead. And especially in qualitative research that holds true. In quantitative we sometimes set our questions and then we move together out data and we don't really go back and change those questions. But basically it's a back and forth process of working all the parts. I think the experienced researcher is really looking for what I would call more of a systems perspective, where everything that needs to relate. And so they're continually going backwards and forwards. I go back and rewrite my research questions sometimes to clarify them after I've gathered my data to make sure that my results that I'm reporting squarely address the questions that I'm asking. So it's a back and forth process for me.

Gordon Graham: Given what you're saying, would you both agree that the proposal writing process, which is a process of laying out a plan, seems necessary that when you write it and explain what you're thinking of doing, it would follow your process? And that when you write the �nal project report, the �nal dissertation, you will write it in the form of the six stage process. But that in between when you're actually doing the research, you do the back and forth and changes, suggesting that the research approach that you've laid out, the six steps, are more about the architecture of how you explain it and the architecture of how you write about the research project �nally at the end. Would that explain the di�erence between the six step logical process and the actual process of doing the research?

Dr. John Creswell: That's a great comment. I think the plan is more of a linear structured approached. You need to sell your project to the faculty and to people that approve the dissertation or the masters project. And that calls for more of a logical argument. But once you get into the study, then it's just kind of back and forth getting all the pieces to �t together very nicely. You notice when you read a really great journal article, research journal article, it �ows so quickly and you can read it so quickly, and I think the reason for that is that all the parts, from how the problem's presented, to the discussion at the end, they all �t together so nicely and it reads very quickly. To me that's a sign of a great research study.

Dr. Ron Shope: But the fact is that the actual research project, the way they did it might not have been quite so clean. It's just that when they write it up, knowing all the pieces and how everything �ts together, they can tell the story in a much more logical fashion.

Dr. John Creswell: Right. When students read journal articles, they see this clean, edited, logical version. And what they don't see behind the scenes is all of the messy work of going back and forth that the researchers probably went through to get to that point. And so pointing out this messiness, this going back and forth, which is really part of the process, is very important early on.

Gordon Graham: One of the things that's always fascinated me about research is the steep learning curve it puts you on. It's more than fascination. I �nd it to be one of the most exhilarating processes that a scholar can engage in. We're

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learning more about the social world. We're learning more about the topic we've zeroed in on. We're learning more about the problem we're researching. Our purpose is increasingly becoming de�ned. We're learning more about the research design that we've selected to address that purpose. We're learning more about the research process itself. And I'd just like all the the beginning research students that will be listening to this interview to understand this is an exciting process. It's a wonderful process. And launches you on some of the most exciting learning curves you'll experience in your lifetime. But at this point, and I certainly want to thank you for addressing my questions, and I would like to pass the interview process over to Dr. Bruce Francis.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND RESEARCH DESIGNS Dr. Bruce Francis: Thank you, Gordon. To go on with the discussion now, we're looking at the research process. I wanna move into more of the not exactly the nitty gritty, but it gets down to where researcher has to begin to choose the design and the type of data that has to be collected. As the researchers choose this strategy and their data analysis strategy from this really bewildering array of possibilities that exist out there, how important are the research questions in leading to the choices of data collection. I wanna focus on the nature of the research question here. How does the form and the substance of the research question connect to the choice of methods. And if a researcher wants to use a particular method, is there a way to ask the research question in such a manner that it leads to a particular method? So if you could, either of you, actually I think John, begin with you, is to talk about this relationship between the research question and the research methodology.

Dr. John Creswell: This is a great question too. And it's it's one often asked. I think there's a comment that you read in almost every research book, that one should choose a method that matches their research question. The problem is most of the books don't explain really what type of question merits what kind of method. And the two methods that we tend to use are quantitative and qualitative methods. And I think they each merit a di�erent type of question. A qualitative question is one where you're trying to explore or understand one concept or one topic, just trying to understand it, trying to describe it perhaps. On quantitative research, the research question is one where we're looking at relationship between two con or two variables. And then you can break it down to the next level within quantitative, are there di�erent types of questions that match di�erent types of methods. For example, do you wanna just look at the relationship between two concepts, does one go up and the other go down. Or what is the relationship. You'd probably use a correlational design. If you want to compare groups in terms of giving one group a certain set of activities and withholding it from the other group and see what di�erence that makes, so if you're gonna compare groups that way, it would be an experimental design. A survey research design would perhaps involve describing samples, comparing groups, or looking at relationships. All three of those types of questions seem to �t a survey. And then we could take that into qualitative too, where the di�erent types of qualitative research merit a di�erent type of question. So that's how I would begin to thinking about this. Would be �rst what type of quantitative question needs to be posed if you're doing the user quantitative method. And then what type of qualitative question might be posed to use a qualitative method.

Dr. Ron Shope: And I would build on that by also saying that one of the things and this was not mentioned in your original question, but I think it's very important that as you design your study, that you do have an overall purpose to your study. Where you have a purpose statement and basically in how you word that purpose statement will begin to determine the type of research design, quantitative or qualitative, �rst of all that you will use. And then within that the type of speci�c quantitative or qualitative design that you will use. And the one thing about the research questions then if the research questions break down that purpose statement into sub- parts, so again, building on John's example for survey research, you know, I will have an overall purpose, but then I can have several types of research questions, possibly descriptive questions or comparative questions, questions which deal with relationships. And I tell my survey students that all of a sudden, right in the beginning stages of designing this process, you have begun to identify the types of statistical procedures that you will use to analyze the data. So if you've asked a relationship question, as John was mentioning, it would

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be a correlation you might wanna generate. Or if you were comparing groups, then it might be a T-tests that you might use. And so the way that you ask questions and the speci�c wording of the question I think is very important to determining one, what type of design you'll use. And second, then how is the analysis going to look. On the qualitative end, depending on how you've asked the research question, it could be a narrative type of design. It could be a grounded theory if you're looking, for example, at designing a theory or looking at a process and so on. And so I think that spending a lot of time, I often spend a lot of my time in teaching taking a look at how those questions are worded, because all of a sudden, what that does is, especially if you're designing an instrument from that, so if you have a survey, those survey questions now are related to this research questions or those interview questions in the qualitative will be used to build those interview type questions. And so I think this is a very important stage too of the research process.

Dr. Bruce Francis: Does the logic work both ways? For instance, if you ask a certain kind of research question, as you say, it will lead to a particular kind of research methodology, particular kinds of data and particular kinds of data analyses. Suppose you want to use a certain kind of methodology, can you then rephrase the research question such that that methodology becomes correct?

Dr. John Creswell: Let me answer that, I think that's the key sometimes. Particularly when a student is more familiar with one method than another or has a faculty advisor that's more comfortable with one method or another. Or the �eld of study that they're in, say leans more in the quantitative rather than the qualitative direction. Then I think the method can drive the research question. In fact, I ran across an article recently where the author was making exactly that point. Not always that the question drives the method, but sometimes the method can drive the question. And going back to that systems perspective we spoke about a few minutes ago, you know, the inter-relatedness of parts, I think assessing that inter-relatedness back and forth is very important. While I'm talking here, let me mention. I play a little game with my students on this one to help �rm up the point that we need to think about methods in terms of certain types of questions. I call it the guess the method. And I'll present three or four research questions. And my �rst point would be okay, is this question, does this merit a quantitative or qualitative method. And then my second question would be okay, if it's quantitative, what type of quantitative method would we use. And I often draw these examples right out of journal articles. So that way they begin to identify the wording, as Ron was saying, the wording of the research question and how it matches certain methods. You know, if they're trying to compare groups, it probably it's going to be an experiment. Or it could be a survey. They're just trying to relate variables, it's probably gonna be some type of correction design. And then I do the same for qualitative research types as well. Types of methods as well.

Dr. Bruce Francis: Earlier when you were talking about the purpose, it occurred to me that the terms problem, purpose, and research question may sometimes be confused by learners. Could you talk brie�y about how you see the distinctions among those three terms?

Dr. John Creswell: In my Merrill book on educational research, I actually have a �gure that identi�es those di�erent parts. I even go back further. First of all, they select at topic. And within the topic, then there's a problem or an issue that needs to be addressed. The purpose statement identi�es the intent. What the objective of the research will be. And then the research questions narrow the purpose statement to speci�c questions that need to be addressed. And that's the logic. And I give an example in my textbook that illustrates how they would think about all four of those levels. That is something that needs to be sorted out very early. Again, it's the language of research and understanding that there are di�erent terms being used that have di�erent meanings.

Dr. Bruce Francis: And one other term which we haven't mentioned here, which follows on from the research question, is the term hypothesis. And I colloquially tell learners that the hypothesis is the expected answer to the research question as a way of distinguishing between, because sometimes I �nd learners don't really distinguish

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between the research question and the hypothesis. And in fact, they di�er in that the hypothesis is what answer you are expecting before you actually do the research.

Dr. Ron Shope: And let me kind of build on that by saying also that there are some articles, for example, that you may only �nd hypotheses rather than research questions. Some you may �nd both. But one important distinction is a hypothesis basically is found primarily in quantitative studies. In qualitative studies, we really many times don't know exactly what we are going to �nd, and the whole purpose is to begin to either understand, explore or describe some kind of central phenomena. And so we don't really have an expected outcome because we're not exactly sure till we begin to dig in what we're going to �nd. And so the overall purpose is the di�erence between qualitative and quantitative.

Dr. John Creswell: As it is sometimes said in the research text, in qualitative research often your goal is to generate hypothesis about a particular complex issue.

Dr. Ron Shope: And especially if you're using a grounded theory design where you're looking at more of a causal type model. Actually that's the end results is that you being to generate, theorist would call them propositions, but really they're hypotheses which, by the way, then later could be tested empirically.

QUANTITATIVE VS. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH Dr. Bruce Francis: Excellent. Let me now move on to another question that gets also into the issue of data gathering and data analysis. And it's a confusing distinction sometimes between quantitative and qualitative research, the distinctions that are made in the literature. And both of you spend a good deal of time trying to clarify those two, so I'd like to ask you if you would talk about them. Some authors tend to see them as di�erent research philosophies or even di�erent world views, whereas others see the distinction in terms of data type. Where quantitative research uses data in the forms of numbers and qualitative research uses data in the form of words or in themes. Then we have the broader more di�cult issue of what happens to the research if you take essentially qualitative data and then code it into categories which you analyze as percentages. Does it then become quantitative. And, of course, if we could lead then on into an area which is you folks are becoming very well known about, and that's the whole mixed method form of research. If you could talk about that general issue, of the controversy between quantitative and qualitative leading into mixed methods. How should our learners be thinking about that whole question.

Dr. Ron Shope: That's a real good question. And actually it's one that we often get as we do workshops and seminars, because of the di�erent research philosophies. John and I kind of refer to ourselves as really applied methodologists. And so we look at things from a methodological perspective. So that's how we sort of view research. And you're right in saying that there are di�erent kinds of world views that are �t qualitative and there are world views that �t quantitative research. And especially when you're getting into the area of mixed methods research, you know, what do you do. And as we think about this whole issue, we look at it from the aspect of the research problem. We take a pragmatic approach and say all right, so what kind of methodology or methodologies do we need to use in order to address a particular research problem. Many times, for example, we'll have a research problem that requires a mixed methods approach, which means that you'll have a quantitative phase and a qualitative phase, and depending on what the problem is, we'll begin to determine what kind of a design that we need to use. But what we look at then is we say well, then you need both kinds of methodologies here to address the problem, it's more of a pragmatic, it becomes more of a pragmatic type of approach. Rather than looking at you know one particular world view in isolation. And there are di�erent types of as we get into mixed methods research, and and John will address this in just a little bit I think that there are issues and ways that people do transform data and the transformation techniques into where you

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transform them for example, qualitative data into quantitative. But I think looking at it from the perspective of a methodologist, you know, what do we need in order to address the problem.

Dr. John Creswell: Let me build on that for just a minute. And I think a little history might help us out on this one. Basically the people that are talking about research as a philosophy come out of the qualitative camp more than he quantitative. You know, in qualitative research, it became popular in the 1980s, the way the qualitative researchers argued for the value of qualitative research was to argue it on philosophical grounds. That it's a di�erent philosophy than doing quantitative research. So what we have over the years are people that are teaching and talking about qualitative research that run the the range from being very philosophically oriented to very methods oriented/data oriented people. Now Ron and I would probably put ourselves into the more data oriented category. For example, when we conduct a mixed methods workshop, we �rst have people talk about their research question and then we simply ask them what kind of data, qualitative and quantitative data, are you going to gather. We bring in philosophical arguments later in the presentation. That's not where we start. And so, there is some confusion about whether qualitative research is more of a philosophy or a method, and actually it's both. But people are going to have di�erent positions on that, and they're going to, some are going to be more philosophically oriented and some are gonna be more methods oriented. Because we're applied research methodologists, we tend to start with the very con-and I think it's helpful for beginning researchers to start from a very concrete level of what kind of data am I going to collect – qualitative data or quantitative or perhaps both – to answer my research question.

Dr. Bruce Francis: Sometimes in working with learners that early on they tend to make a decision, I'm a quantitative person, I'm a qualitative person. And I generally encourage them not to make that decision too early, to try to explore both realms within the world of research. Do you agree that's a good approach or do you feel that they should be encouraged to run with where their strengths seem to be?

Dr. Ron Shope: Sometimes that depends on the person, but I tend to early on encourage students to look at both. Because one of the things that happens I think that as a researcher, I don't want to cut myself o� from di�erent kinds of problems that I might want to address. You know, for example, if I just say well I'm a quantitative researcher, and I don't do qualitative, there's a lot of things that really need to be addressed qualitatively that can't be assessed quantitatively. And if you sort of cut yourself o� and say I'm not going to do that and narrow yourself. Now I think it obviously too is you know there are gonna be people that are more comfortable dealing with numbers, and that's �ne. There are going to people that are more comfortable dealing with text. Actually in my own doctoral experience, I started out as a quantitative researcher. And had gone through all of my doctoral program, because I knew the problem that I wanted to deal with in the dissertation and took a class that was qualitative and decided this is really what I want to deal with. And as a result though I had the training in the quantitative, while my love was more qualitative, but I feel like especially as we approach mixed methods, I now have a balanced skill set that I could deal with a problem that required more of a mixed methods approach. So some of it's individual, where a person's feeling a little more comfortable with one or the other, but I would encourage students to explore both. But they're ultimately going to �nd out I'm more comfortable with one or the other.

Dr. Bruce Francis: How would you advise learners who seem to want to choose qualitative because they have anxiety about the quantitative? Typically based on not knowing it very well, they will often say I really am afraid of statistics, so I want to do quantitative. How do you advice folks like that?

Dr. John Creswell: Well, I would basically say to go ahead and use qualitative. And I would then also emphasize that it's not easier. In fact, it might even be more di�cult, because it doesn't have as much structure to it. And then, at least for my graduate students here, I suggest that they have a core background in statistics, they take some statistics courses. They might �nd as they take a few, one or two, that they would become more familiar with crunching

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numbers. But, you know, basically for me I think we're back to the research question. I have them write down their research question, and then I look at it and say you know this sounds more like a quantitative or more like a qualitative. And then if they have some skill training in both quantitative and qualitative, then I might point out, look, so many of our issues today like the hurricane disaster in New Orleans, it has a quantitative and a qualitative component to it. You know, we collected the statistics about the people that were homeless, and then also we heard on TV the voices of these individuals giving impassioned pleas for relief to help them rebuild their houses. Now this is an example, a real life example, of how we're using both quantitative and qualitative data. And then they may ask well, I don't have time to do both forms of data, because you're asking me to collect two di�erent types and analyze two di�erent types. And then I say well, I wonder if one type could be a secondary data source, a smaller data source, and the other be a larger. And so that you're not collecting two full data sets; you're collecting a major data set. Let's say a major survey to start out, and then a few focus groups to follow up to really learn the detail of why people responded they might have in the survey. So, I begin posing that mixed methods as a possibility. Kind of like the checkbook situation I mentioned earlier. Most of our life is based upon collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. They see the value of learning this approach.

Dr. Bruce Francis: One of the techniques I have found useful is taking a large scale survey in which you ask potentially quantitative questions, but then o�er people the opportunity to provide open ended answers, which gives you some qualitative work. I often also add a sentence or add an item inviting people who want to to be telephoned, so that a telephone interview could be held with them afterwards. And from that telephone interview, you can �nd even a few case studies who are willing to be probed even further to get their views in a much more qualitative way. And in that way, the quantitative leads to the qualitative, which leads essentially to the mixed kind of approach.

Dr. Ron Shope: …call that a sequential design, actually explanatory sequential design. And so there are now speci�c names for those particular designs.

Dr. John Creswell: When the person collects, analyzes, and integrates or mixes both quantitative and qualitative data. And in your example of �rst doing this survey, and then following it up with some invited interviews, they are collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, analyzing it, and they're connecting the two. One helps lead to the next phase. The �rst survey phase leads to the interview, the second phase.

Dr. Bruce Francis: And that's a little bit di�erent from the approach in which you have three essentially di�erent data sets and you try to triangulate with those di�erent forms of data. So I think that a mixed approach has various forms, but the underlying philosophy of it is that there are more di�erent ways of looking at any kind of research question than just the single one.

Dr. John Creswell: In my new mixed methods book, we talk about ten di�erent design possibilities. But there's really kind of four core examples of variations as to how you might design the mixed methods study. And we, as Ron said, we associate names of those di�erent designs. But I think that's the way of the future. I think people are thinking, �rst of all, people are getting training in both quantitative and qualitative. They see the complexity of the problems that exist that can't just be answered by quantitative survey, nor can they just be answered by a qualitative interview. And so they're beginning to gather both forms of data and put them together in a single study.

Dr. Bruce Francis: Well I I think we have actually arrived at the end of our major questions. I'd like to ask if there are any �nal comments. Gordon, do you have any further questions you'd like our guests to respond to?

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Gordon Graham: The interview, of course, is fundamentally important method of gathering data. And I'm just curious to hear some of the wisdom you've learned about conducting interviews with participants.

Dr. Bruce Francis: Ron, you wanna take that one?

Dr. Ron Shope: I'll go ahead and respond �rst to that. Basically one of the things that you need to make sure when you interview is that your interview questions are very broad, open ended questions. Many times students tend to write questions that are more designed for survey that are very closed end. But you really wanna ask them to describe experiences, tell you about something. When I teach students that are in the counseling major, for example, they're very good at asking broad, open ended questions. In fact, I ask them if a client comes into your o�ce for counseling, what's one of the �rst questions you ask them. And they say well what brought you here. And I ask them why they ask that. Well, we wanna get them talking. Well, that's exactly what you wanna do. You want the interview participant to talk, and you want to make sure also too, I always have my students as they propose their interview questions and put them down, that in their interview protocol, that they also begin to think about probes that they also may wanna follow up with. So like, for example, I have them list a couple of probes, things that if they don't answer this, what are some things that you wanna follow up that you make sure that you �nd out. Because if you just leave that to the time of the interview, you may forget about what you wanna ask them. A couple other things is we always record our interviews. I know there are authors who suggest not doing that. But one of the problems is that you really wanna focus your attention on listening to what that participant says. So now if you have a tape recording going, you have the possibility of getting a very accurate transcript of quotes. And as you are listening to that person talk, you are actually making some notes, many times I'll say oh, this is a great quote, I may look down at the recorder to see where that is on the counter, so that I can go back and I can �nd it later. I also make some just re�ective notes on what that person is saying. And so there's a sense in which as I'm interviewing, I'm listening and I'm beginning to analyze what that person says. Another thing about interviewing that I have found out too, you wanna make sure that as you do your interview protocol, that you put an introduction so that you're introducing the person or your participants in about the same way. I also have students write in a paragraph just to thank them. So you sort of remember to do that. As you're there, the big thing I tell students about interviewing, this is not an interrogation. This is a conversation between you and that participant and it should be relaxed, friendly. The other thing that you should minimize is any kind of verbal or non-verbal feedback. In other words, you wanna make sure that you as the researcher are not in�uencing what that person is saying, but that you are, yes, you're acknowledging, but and that's hard to do. But I think the more that you can sort of listen and the more that you have structure how you want that interview to go, is very important. I think the interview questions – and let me say this too. Is the interview questions also are gonna vary depending on the qualitative research design that you are using. So if you are doing grounded theory, those questions are gonna center around the aspects of that grounded theory model. If you're doing a narrative, they're gonna be di�erent. An ethnography, because the focus of your study is di�erent, and so those interview questions will actually re�ect the type of design you're using.

Dr. John Creswell: Let me build on that, And as Ron's been talking, I've been thinking about how I would teach qualitative interviewing to a beginning student. One thing that we always do is we do some role playing in our classes, where students might develop, �rst of all, their set of questions that they would ask. We call that an interview protocol. And we would talk with them about how to set up that protocol properly. Then we would have them actually conduct an interview, and one of the important parts, of course, is if you're going to audio tape, making sure your equipment works. As some of these little details that can really cause great frustration in doing qualitative interviews. And then to practice. And then we often have the audio taped practice interviews transcribed, and then turn around and use that in data analysis. Because now they've helped create a qualitative database, and it can be a vehicle for talking about how you go about analyzing qualitative data. So getting them used to it. And as Ron said, some people are certainly more comfortable interviewing, because it's part of their real life job to do this on a regular basis. Others, it may be a very strange experience.

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Gordon Graham: I know we're running out of time, and I just would like to have a summary comment. And then I'm sure that Dr. Francis would like to wrap up as well. But you gentlemen are doing very important work. We're in the midst of a knowledge explosion on planet Earth, as we're all aware. And the kind of work that you're doing is showing us how to create knowledge more e�ectively, to create knowledge that has greater validity. We've got an awful lot of challenges out there, and I personally wanna thank you for the work you're doing in terms of teaching scholars everywhere about how to do their work more systematically, more thoroughly, with better results, so that we can rise to the challenges that are out there. So, I'm very appreciative for this opportunity to talk to you, and I'm sure all the learners that listen to this will be as well. Thank you very much.

Dr. Bruce Francis: And I'd like to add my thanks and my congratulations to you both for the work that you are doing. Our use of your textbooks is just a minor sign of how important we think it is. And we anticipate that our learners will gain a great deal from this interview. I wanna thank you very much formally for Capella University and for Gordon and for myself.

Dr. John Creswell: Well we appreciate this opportunity. And we've been very impressed with what Capella has been doing. And all the Capella learners out there that are listening to this need to know that I'm a learner too. And so when you run across an idea, you don't understand or there's something that I need to explain better in my writing, be sure and drop me a note. I answer all the mail that comes in and try to give you as good a response as I can. And and often I go back and I'll make the change based on what you said. So thanks a lot.

Dr. Ron Shope: I've appreciated being with you all today as well. I teach all of the online research methods at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Or I'm one of the main instructors I should say. And appreciate all of the work that you as online learners put into online courses. I know that this is not easy. And I enjoy working with online learners and hope that this interview series will be helpful to you as you go about your own research in your course work.

Dr. Bruce Francis: We are certain it will be, and thank you again.

Speakers:

Interactive Design:

Instructional Design:

Project Management:

CREDITS Gordon Graham, Dr. Ron Shope, Dr. Bruce Francis, Dr. John Creswell Patrick Lapinski

Suzanne DeFoe

Catherine Baumgartner

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