Mixing It Up About Methods

Abstract

The authors respond to the commentaries (this issue of Educational Researcher) on a series of articles (in the March 2009 issue of Educational Researcher) that discuss the challenges associated with measuring reading instruction. The authors argue that the teaching of reading is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon best studied through a variety of overlapping and complementary methods, quantitative and qualitative. They describe how they put this belief into practice in their longitudinal study of reading and mathematics instruction, and they use other articles derived from that study to demonstrate how a mixed methods research design can enhance our understanding of instructional practices and aspects of the social and cultural contexts that influence those practices. They argue against a return to the paradigm wars that plagued education research during the 1980s.