The search for understanding of mixed method research among graduate students: a case of learners in the school of continuing and distance education, university of Nairobi, Kenya

The desire by students and researchers to engage in interdisciplinary research has forced many of them to adopt mixed method research. A combination of both quantitative and qualitative approaches/paradigms enables the researcher to tap into the strengths of each as well as minimizing the weaknesses of both in a single study. A paradigm dictates the opinions, assumptions and beliefs a researcher holds about the world around them and their view of what constitutes knowledge and truth. Opposing views about the nature of knowledge (epistemology), the role of values (axiology) and the nature of reality (ontology) caused emergence of the paradigms. The types of assumptions and practices held by individual researchers often leads a researcher taking on a qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods approach in their research study. The School of Continuing and Distance Education formerly School of Open and Distance Learning offers a Masters Degree and PhD in Project Planning and Management. Due to the multi-faceted issues investigated by the graduate students, majority of them opt to adopt mixed method approaches in their research work. However, a review of some of the graduate proposals has shown a lack of understanding among the students on the coherence between mixed method paradigm and the designs emanating from this paradigm. The purpose of this paper is to review mixed method research and mixed method approaches in a simple and systematic manner. The paper will identify different types of mixed method designs based on weighting and timing. Finally, the paper will end by recommending pertinent questions that a researcher needs to ask themselves before embarking on a mixed method study.