Hello, experts,
I am wondering if I need to provide justification for using a mixed-method study in my paper if I plan to publish it. The reason I am asking is that the philosophical paradigms of QUAN and QUAL are theoretically opposing.
Thank you for your help.
If by QUAN and QUAL you mean qualitative and quantitative methods, then there is no philosophical opposition because methods do not have philosophies. Instead, philosophical assumptions are associated with broad approaches to research such as Post-Positivism or Constructivism.
In mixed methods research, what you do need to justify is why you choose a specific research design to address your research question. To learn more about mixed methods research designs, I suggest a textbook such as the one by Creswell and Plano-Clark.
They are opposed but they form a duality, as in the yin-yang of the old Chinese Book of Changes, where the archetypal opposites guide the change. QUAN carries the seed of QUAL and QUAL carries the seed of QUAN. In problem spaces that cover a mix of realities, some strongly linear and deterministic, others highly uncertain (often due to their social dimension), the only way to study them in depth is by exploring the opposites and the tensions between them.
Thank you so much for y'all professional feedback. I will try to read further about this topic. Antonio Dias de Figueiredo David L Morgan
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