A Review of Mixed Methods Course Offerings at the U.S. Research Universities

抄録

Objective: The primary objective of this study was to investigate how well graduate students are prepared for doing mixed methods research (MMR) through exploring the offered courses on the topic of MMR at U.S. research universities.

Methods: This study utilized a convergent mixed methods research design, we collected and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data separately and integrated the results. This study reviewed the public data from the Carnegie Classifications research universities. We generated a list of 279 R1 and R2 national universities. Among the 279 research universities, 134 offer MMR courses, which highlights a growing emphasis on equipping students with diverse research methodologies and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration in academic institutions.

Results: The findings demonstrated a significant presence of MMR courses at R1 and R2 research universities, with R1 institutions having a significantly higher prevalence. This distribution suggests that research-intensive universities are more active in incorporating MMR into their curricula, possibly due to the higher demand for diverse research methods among senior researchers and their access to extensive resources to support scientific research. Our results show that the top departments that offer courses on MMR include education, public health, sociology, communication, nursing, social science, and administration health services.