Even such an apparently basic operation as the measurement of a length involves
acceptance of a series of theories and judgements about the nature of length and the
isomorphic behaviour of numbers (Berka, 1984). As with ‘number’ and ‘length’, so
also with many of our basic concepts and classifications for use in social science -
‘sex’, ‘time’, ‘place’, ‘family’, ‘class’ or ‘ethnicity’ (Gorard, 2003). Measurement is
an intrinsically intrepretivist process (Gorard, 2009). Personal judgement(s) lie at the
heart of all research - in our choice of research questions, samples, questions to
participants and methods of analysis - regardless of the kinds of data to be collected.
The idea that the quantitative work is objective and qualitative is subjective is based
on a misunderstanding of how research is actually conducted.
Implications (if the argument so far is accepted)
For the conduct of research
Mixed methods are not a design. Nor do they represent some kind of paradigm,
separate from those traditionally termed ‘qualitative’ and ‘quantitative’. How could
mixed methods be incommensurable with the two elements supposed to be mixed
within them? Mixed methods are then just a description of how most people would
go about researching any topic that they really wanted to find out about. The results
of research if taken seriously affect the lives of real people, and lead to genuine
expenditure and opportunity costs. We should be (nearly) as concerned about
research as we are about investigations and decisions in our lives. It is instructive to
contrast how we, as researchers, generally behave when conducting research
professionally and how we behave when trying to answer important questions in our
everyday lives. When we make real-life decisions about where to live, where to
work, the care and safety of our children, the health of our loved ones, and so on,
many of us behave very differently from being ‘researchers’.
No one, on buying a house, refuses to discuss or even know the price, the mortgage
repayments, the room measurements or the number of bathrooms. No one, on buying
a house, refuses to visit the house, look at pictures of it, walk or drive around the
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