1Syllabus Using Mixed Methods in Educational Research and Evaluation ED-737-001 Winter Term 2008 INSTRUCTORS: Elizabeth Birr Moje Valerie E. Lee 4122 SEB 4220-SEB (734) 647-9571 (734) 647-2456 [email protected] [email protected] OFFICE HOURS: Tuesdays, 4-5:30 PM Mondays, 2-4 PM ---or by appointment--- TEACHING SUPPORT: Nicole Tysvaer 4216-A SEB (734) 936-3656 [email protected] Lab time to be decided TIME: Tuesdays, 1-4, 4212 SEB. This 3-credit course will consist of one 3-hour lecture per week plus lab time (often, but not every week at a mutually convenient time). The lab will concentrate more on data analysis, whereas the lecture will concentrate more on conceptual issues. PREREQUISITES: Students who enroll in this class must have completed AT LEAST one course in quantitative methods (most likely ED-793) and in qualitative methods (most likely ED-792). We expect mostly doctoral students, but masters' students who have completed the prerequisites are welcome. We prefer students to have taken at least one additional advanced course in research methods. Thus, students will more likely be in their second or third year of their doctoral programs. Although the class is intended for students in the School of Education, and our discussions will focus on research in education, interested students from other departments and schools who have completed comparable required courses are welcome. FORMAT: The course focuses on both conceptual issues surrounding the use of mixed methods in social science research and analysis of data using mixed methods. Instructors will supply students with data from either national sources or their own research in the qualitative or quantitative format. Although the course will involve scrutiny of published research throughout, and uses published research for the first assignment, we expect students to develop skills in mixed-method research by engaging in actual analysis of data using mixed methods. Thus, the course will blend conceptualization, design, and analysis. Although the instructors' own research has been focused primarily on either the qualitative (Moje) or the quantitative paradigm (Lee), we both recognize the importance of mixed methods in educational research and the growing importance of a solid knowledge of both approaches -- and their blending -- to actually design and conduct meaningful research in education and other social sciences. Moreover, we have both used both qualitative and quantitative research in our own studies, as well as combining both into mixed-methods studies.2 PURPOSE: Although there are two basic approaches to conducting social science research (i.e., quantitative and qualitative), each has its strengths and weaknesses in “getting to the heart of” any social phenomenon. We have observed, with some distress, that researchers (including fledgling researchers in graduate school) often define themselves as being committed to one or the other research approach or tradition. Although this commitment often influences how researchers approach questions or define studies they undertake, we believe that it is research questions that should drive the approach, and not a particular researcher’s training or preference. Many (or maybe most) research questions are quite broad, and how they are addressed could often benefit from inquiries designed from several traditions. Our purposes in this course are several. First, we hope to encourage students to think more broadly about the research they undertake (now or in the future). We have seen too often a lack of respect for, or even hostility to, different perspectives. Thus, we want to encourage discourse across perspectives. Second, we want students to actually engage in mixed-methods research. These activities are meant to build both skill and appreciation for research that is driven by the questions we ask, rather than the methodologies we prefer. We have a third purpose, which is hopefully a product of the teaching staff for the course. We wish to engage in some public and respectful discussions – between two faculty members who are know mostly for their research in one or another paradigm. We hope that our students will benefit from these discussions, and we suspect that they will be among our own best experiences in this new course. We appreciate that you have decided to join us in this new undertaking, from which we all hope to learn a great deal. Because the course is new, we have chosen to focus on particular research and data that each of us knows well, but both of us are somewhat unfamiliar on the whole. REQUIRED READINGS: • Text: Abbas Tashakoori and Charles Tedley, Editors (2003). Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social and Behavioral Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. • Articles: Available on CTools. DATA SOURCES: There are two general sources of data for the course, both of which focus on children in and out of school. One source focuses on young children, usually between 5 and 6 years old, in their first formal year of schooling: kindergarten. The major format of these data is quantitative, and they are part of a nationally representative longitudinal study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education: the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K). We use a random subset of the ECLS-K study, including data on close to 20 children in each of 200 U.S. public and private elementary schools. The data are organized into two SPSS systems files, one containing data on children, the other on their schools (the data files may be linked by the school IDs). Students may also use an existing complementary qualitative dataset, collected in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms in low-income Michigan public elementary schools. The second data source focuses on the literacy practices of adolescents (6th through 11th-grade youth) in and out of school in one urban community. The data come from a study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the Institute of Education Sciences (R01HD046115 NICHD/ACF/ASPE/IES). The total sample is longitudinal (three years, to3date), with repeat participants representing a subsample of each year’s sample. These data are both