Iterative Mixed-Methods Design

THE COMPARATIVE FRAMEWORK

Educational histories, systems, size, policies, infrastructures, curricula, teachers, and school-community relations differ vastly across and within the three countries. The sampling and research methods used for the study are designed to recognize and engage this breadth.

Using a rich analytical toolbox to systematically investigate similar processes across diverse contexts provides us analytic leverage to identify points of broader transferability (or “naturalistic generalizability,” Stake 1983) across diverse sites and systems.

THE MIXED METHODS APPROACH

We employ a mixed methods approach (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004) that is particularly appropriate for investigating multilevel, comparative models and analytic frameworks for complex phenomena, an explicit goal of this study (Yoshikawa et al., 2008).

WITHIN-COUNTRY ITERATIVE DATA COLLECTION PROCESS 

Data collection is iterative across sites and research methods. Iteration across sites is driven by differing national academic calendars (which led to staggered data collection calendars) and by regular conversations among team members about emerging themes in each site and country, and across

countries. Iteration across methods is intentional and implies that stages of data collection are linked by ongoing, collaborative, and comparative analysis of qualitative and quantitative data (Figure 1). This continuous comparative approach is central to all data analysis.