Mixed methods has become an increasingly applied methodology during the past decades and many academics mix different types of data across a wide range of disciplines, projects and sectors.

Employing multiple methods within a single research project may increase the scope or improve the quality of the knowledge gained, increase the validity of the findings, secure the optimal research design, augment the explorative process and offer a number of other kinds of ‘added value’ of mixed methods research. But that is not always the case.

Unfortunately, mixed methods analyses often do not reach their potential for various reasons. In addition, many courses on mixed methods focus very explicitly on aspects related to philosophy of science, epistemology and the pitfalls of mixing methods from different paradigms.

Although these issues are important, putting more effort into discussing the operational and instrumental parts of mixed methods research is necessary in order to achieve better integration in analyses based on multiple data sources.

Furthermore, in addition to being a genre and methodology in itself, mixed methods usually draw heavily on quantitative and qualitative methods, but without being well-founded in the state-of-the-art within these core methods and their recent methodological developments.

During spring and summer 2020 the National Centre for School Research (NCS), Aarhus University and VIA University College will host a series of courses on mixed methods.

The courses are separated in two parts where each participant can choose which part(s) to attend. The courses are open for everybody with an interest in mixed methods research and in particular for PhDstudents (who are eligble for one ECTS point per day of participation).

The purpose of the courses is threefold:

• First, they will provide a thorough introduction to mixed methods research with a particular focus on education and pedagogy.
• Secondly, they will enable participants to plan and conduct high quality mixed methods research through practical exercises and workshops.
• Finally, they will facilitate the development and initiation of new mixed methods projects and collaboration across research institutions and academic career stages.

Currently the following courses are planned:

• 16/3 - Quantitative ethnography and data science methods in educational research – Focus on text analysis – Lecturers: Morten Misfeldt and Jonas Dreyøe
• 18.-19./5 -Designing and conducting Mixed Methods research in education and pedagogy – Lecturer: Morten Frederiksen

More information and registration links will soon be posted at ncs.au.dk/arrangementer