The generative potential of mixed methods inquiry1

Abstract A mixed method approach to educational and social inquiry is presented as an important counterpoint to the contemporary debate about what constitutes valid, rigorous, and 'scientific' research. By welcoming all legitimate methodological traditions, mixed method inquiry meaningfully engages with difference and thus offers some generative potential for better, enriched, more insightful understanding. Notes 1. These remarks were originally presented as part of an invited Presidential Symposium on 'Mixed methods research in an era of accountability' at the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, April 2005. 2. Ken Howe, in fact, refers to our inquiry traditions as 'political methodologies' (Citation2003).