Explanatory Sequential Mixed Method Design as the Third Research Community of Knowledge Claim

Abstract

Educational fraternity is moving towards research based practices to improve educational standards. Many novice educational researchers are in dilemma to adopt research design in order to explore reality through their research endeavor because of a tag of war on ontological epistemological and axiological perspectives among qualitative and quantitative researchers. In this confounding situation, this article guides them to fuse both qualitative and quantitative stand points to explore reality from another perspective which is known as pragmatic paradigm. In this connection, this article aims at explaining the holistic ideas of mixed method design focusing particularly on philosophical premises, generating research questions, data collection and analysis process, potential ethical issues, quality of inference and teaching mixed methodology. This article highlights on the growing interest of educational researchers on sequential mixed method design in order to collect and analyze data for legitimize knowledge claim. This article is expected to be useful to novice researchers who are in quandary to adopt explanatory sequential mixed method as a research method and it also creates a roadmap in educational research indicating methodological possibilities for new knowledge claim.