Research and Evaluation in Education and Psychology: Integrating Diversity With Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods
“The organization of the text reflects the author’s intent, philosophy, and objectives . . . [Mertens] clearly presents approaches, descriptions, and many examples useful in conducting studies; she is to be commended for the thoroughness of her work.” (Frank D. Adams, Wayne State College)“Very comprehensive for beginning doctoral students . . . I wish more authors recognized the importance of addressing diverse perspectives and approaches.” (Linda A. Pursley, Lesley University)“As a researcher, the presentation offers a fresh approach. It is critical to look at research from a transformative paradigm. Most methods texts do not even attempt to do this.” (Cynthia J. MacGregor, Missouri State University)“Excellent descriptions, definitions, examples, and narrative about social science theory and the various paradigms. Mertens [first] breaks these challenging concepts into increments and then continues to use the paradigmatic language throughout the text. This allows students new to the material to contextualize methodology, method, and paradigm . . . This is useful as students grapple with understanding how each of these tenets differs and how they are interconnected. This text does the best job in explaining these challenging theories. Mertens’ use [of] a wide variety of social identities to provide her examples makes the text inclusive of a variety of diverse identities. It is also useful to see the differences between [research and evaluation] and to select methods appropriate to the intention of the inquiry.” (Katrina L. Rodriguez, University of Northern Colorado)