A Combination of Quantitative and Qualitative Strategies in Educational Research: Reflections on Three Studies

Abstract

This paper reviews three experiences of empirical research done by the author herself. In these an attempt is made to combine quantitative and qualitative methodologies of investigation. The first study focuses on the relationship between education and rural productivity. This work was carried out in four corn-producing areas of Mexico, and combines a survey with life stories. The second investigation is the study of projects that pursue combined aims of post-literacy and job training in thirteen Latin American countries. This work employed a questionnaire directed toward the managers of a large number of projects, plus case studies from a reduced number of the. The third study considered here analyzes the factors which affect the quality of elementary education in Mexico, and combines several instruments with a quantitative multivariate analysis and ethnographic observation in the classroom, school and community. The author extracts the lessons learned from these three experiences, and concludes that it is irrational to consider that each of the quantitative and qualitative methodologies belongs to the paradigms of social interpretation encountered. The combination of methodological approaches, in the three cases, permitted findings that would have been impossible through the isolated use of either of the two methodological approaches.