Considerations for Multidisciplinary, Culturally Sensitive, Mixed Methods Research

Abstract

Abstract: Undertaking a mixed methods research study requires competencies and technical skills in both or all methods being utilised. This is made even more complex with a multi‑disciplinary research team and a culturally sensitive research context that researchers need to take into account when making methodological choices around research design and data collection approaches and techniques. The paper expands on these issues whilst taking the reader through the research process and the culturally sensitive issues that the research team faced. The multidisciplinarity of the research team is described followed by the decision to use a mixed method approach. An explanatory sequential mixed methods research design (Creswell and Plano Clark 2011) was utilised which involved quantitative followed by qualitative data. Literature on culturally sensitive research approaches is presented as a forerunner to the methodological decisions made by the research team in terms of actual data collection and associated data collection instruments and processes. The paper provides some valuable insights and techniques on methodological choices and approaches taken by a multi‑disciplinary team in a culturally sensitive context. Actual empirical data from the study is therefore not presented. We utilise a mixed methods research design where the weakness of one type of data collection instrument is off set by the strengths of the other and where the skills and cultural mix of the research team is leveraged to achieve a more robust and rigorous study. The paper makes a contribution to research methodology in several ways, through providing ideas about how to best leverage the diversity from within a multidisciplinary research team, the strengths of using mixed methods as opposed to mono methods and the application of culturally sensitive techniques in both quantitative data collection and qualitative data collection.