International Conference Mixed Methods Research in Education

No matter whether studying Kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, special education, higher education and/or further or adult education, social research on education has to consider multi-level structures of educational processes encompassing individual (micro- level), organizational (meso-level) and/or societal (macro-level) settings. Individual practices as well as institutional frameworks vary historically, between societal contexts and across countries. Therefore, considering different perspectives and interrelating them is an integral part of educational research. Mixed method approaches open up avenues to integrate different perspectives and levels of analysis; and relating them is a core challenge in designing mixed methods studies as well as performing integrative analyses. With the establishment of mixed methods research in recent decades, methodological, terminological, and procedural considerations have been reflected on why and how different perspectives on a research object can be combined in order to arrive at a broader or deeper understanding.

At the conference we would like to reflect on the blind spots inherent in any qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods approach as well as on advantages and disadvantages from this integrative perspective and discuss how different qualitative and quantitative approaches can be combined to advance our understanding of educational processes and structures. Moreover, we also want to discuss the practical and institutional disadvantages, challenges, limits as well as the scope of integrative research.