Abstract
Notwithstanding the expansion of mixed methods, research methods and findings are culturally situated. Unfortunately, studies conducted outside the Global North often embrace canonical methodologies not aimed at understanding tacit concepts. Learning about the needs of South African researchers and participants enlightens taken-for-granted assumptions in Anglo-American mixed methods. Hence, this study explores aspects of tacit cultural knowledge that contextualize mixed methods in South Africa. In-person interviews among South African professors are analyzed narratively. Findings indicate that economically based knowledge facilitates methodologies as political identities. Research questions require contextual sensitivity and methodology requires relational ethics of communicative approaches. Because South African participants identify with non-Western numeric literacies and storytelling knowledge, qualitatively dominant mixed methods allows minimally structured talk. Recommendations include flexible plans and accounting for cultural expression of doubt.
TopBackground
To qualitatively study the case of mixed methods research (MMR) in South Africa (SA), Jennifer Greene’s (2007) definition of MMR as mixing mental models and beliefs as well as incorporating multiple philosophies, values, understandings, and methodologies for gathering and analyzing information allows flexible adaptation across cultures and language. Several writers have promoted mixed methods (MM) as suitable for addressing cultural issues, including the intersection of psychology and context, complexity of cultural constructs, cultural competence, and meaning in cultural comparisons (Bartholomew & Brown, 2012; Nastasi & Hitchcock, 2016; Ortiz et al., 2012). MMR may account for cultural contexts by requiring researchers to confront contradiction (Coyle & Williams, 2000). Plano Clark and Ivankova (2016) also stressed the importance of accounting for contexts of mixed methods research. Moreover, by offering “dialogic opportunities” for understanding social phenomena (Greene, 2012, p. 755), MMR enables avoiding “methodological ethnocentricity” (Ayalew, 2012, p. 133). However, to capitalize on cultural explanations and avoid prematurely normalizing across cultural boundaries, Green and Preston (2005) advised against unknowingly using formulaic approaches to mix methods.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Mmogo-Method®: A method of eliciting visual and verbal projection of co-constructed meanings from unstructured materials and open-ended prompts.
Instrumental Case Study: A case that is bound by time and place and that seeks to naturalistically make generalizations.
Tacit Cultural Knowledge: Knowledge of culture that remains outside awareness, goes undiscussed, and lacks vocabulary.
Mixed Methods Research: Mixing mental models and beliefs as well as incorporating multiple philosophies, values, understandings, and methodologies for gathering and analyzing information.