Content area
Full Text
Introduction
The accepted use of multiple methodologies within education research provokes ongoing debate on the affordances offered by the plurality of different approaches. It is my purpose to highlight the affordances of considering phenomena through different qualitative lenses by pointing to the different understandings generated by the professional learning experiences of teachers when developing their expertise. Exploring the specific affordances of two qualitative methodologies selected for use in one Australian study requires distinguishing between the integration of two qualitative methodologies and the “mix” of quantitative and qualitative methods (Greene, 2005). Besides outlining the use of narrative inquiry and phenomenological inquiry, I assess the extent to which specific choices provide a basis for combining qualitative methodologies.
This paper argues for articulation of the affordances of qualitative methodologies used within one study to address the realities experienced by teachers throughout the development of their professional expertise. First, it is critical to understand the affordances of combining methodologies to create hermeneutic understandings for teacher professional learning. Second, an outline of this study constructs the meaning-making potential arising from narrative interpretations and phenomenological investigation of lived experience. Third, the implications derived from using narrative and phenomenological inquiry together are examined to posit that two qualitative methodological choices substantiate the multifaceted nature of the construction of meaning-making.
The affordances of combining methodologies
Addressing education issues requires the ability to generate questions that demand an eclectic use of methodologies to explore complex phenomena of lived experience. The need for thinking which aims to access multiple ways of knowing and include multiple traditions in social inquiry is supported by Greene’s (2005) stance of honoring, valuing and meaningfully engaging with difference in the context of the problem being addressed. Significantly, “the juxtaposition of different lenses, perspectives, and stances” (Greene, 2005) enables the creation of new understandings and deliberations. Understanding different experiences represented through language, context and relationship not only demands ongoing questioning but a re-imaging of methodological responses to explore phenomenological difference.
The literature identifies research as “mixed” when combining methodologies drawn from differing theoretical or paradigmatic frames (Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2012; Mertens, 2012; Tashakkori and Teddlie, 2010). Using a mixture of research methodologies was straightforward and not unusual prior to the “paradigm wars” that came to the fore in the 1980s (Gorard...