A Local-State Government Spatial Data Sharing Partnership

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Chapter 4 – Research Design and Methods
(Tashakkori & Teddlie 2003). However, in recent times researchers have begun to re-
examine these previously isolated approaches (Creswell 2003). Methods in theory and
practice have continued to emerge with new strategies such as participatory approaches,
advocacy perspectives, critical appraisal and pragmatic ideas being advanced (Lincoln &
Guba 2000). The field of mixed methods research has developed as a pragmatic approach
to utilise the strengths of both methods.
Mixed methods research is a logical extension of the current re-examination and
exploration of new practices. As Creswell (2003, p. 4) identified:
“Mixed methods research has come of age. To include only quantitative or qualitative
methods falls short of the major approaches being used today in the social and human
sciences. …The situation today is less quantitative versus qualitative and more how
research practices lie somewhere on the continuum between the two.... The best that can
be said is studies tend to be more quantitative or qualitative in nature.”
The definitions for qualitative and quantitative methods vary with individual researchers,
especially when the understanding of the actual methods is examined (Thomas 2003).
Methods such as grounded theory – where theory emerges during the data collection
process, and participatory approaches, where the researcher takes the role of a participant
or an observer, do not comfortably fit with traditional qualitative methods. These
approaches extend the often accepted boundaries of these methods as new research
strategies are developed. Mixed method design can incorporate techniques from both the
qualitative and quantitative research traditions in a unique approach to answer research
questions that could not be answered in another way (Tashakkori & Teddlie 2003, p. x).
The mixed method approach differs from other variants within the individual research
paradigms of qualitative and quantitative research (Brannen 1992). Teddlie and
Tashakkori (2003) identify three reasons where the utility of mixed methods research may
be superior to single method approach:
1. mixed methods research can answer research questions that other methodologies
cannot;
2. mixed methods research provides better (stronger) inferences; and
3. mixed methods provide the opportunity for presenting a greater diversity of
divergent views.
The above reasons, although general in context, provided the basis for justifying the mixed
method approach as a suitable research approach in this thesis. Firstly, the mixed method