Mixed methods integration strategies used in education: A systematic review

Abstract

Mixed methods research (MMR) has been widely adopted in a plethora of disciplines. Integration is the pressing issue regarding the legitimation, the added value, and the quality of using MMR, though inadequate literature has discussed effective strategies used in the field of education, including school psychology, counseling, and teacher education. This study reviewed 119 recently published MMR articles in education using a four-dimension codebook with the goal to explore generic integration strategies and innovative strategies used by educational researchers in practice. As a result, three most commonly used generic integration strategies were identified, including (1) using a good mixed methods (MM) research question to guide research design, (2) using appropriate MM sampling strategy to obtain good data for achieving integration, and (3) using multiple MM data mixing strategies to facilitate integration. Moreover, five creative integration strategies were found at the method level: (1) using an innovative survey to collect both qualitative and quantitative data, (2) using visual support to collect data, (3) using high-tech methods to facilitate data collection, (4) using data visualization in mixing, and (5) quantitizing categorized QUAL data. This review summarizes and analyzes the effective integration strategies commonly used at the research design level and at the method level. It also provides valuable recommendations for educational researchers to explore creative strategies to achieve efficient integration when they conduct mixed methods research.