a mixed-methods investigation of the challenges of conducting mixed methods research: iranian tefl faculty members’ and ph.d. candidates’ perspectives

In recent years, the use of mixed methods research (mmr) has gained immense popularity and has grown in use in various disciplines and countries. mmr has been increasingly welcomed in applied linguistics and language education due to its potentiality as a tool for promoting more detailed inquiry of issues under investigation. as part of large-scale study, the current sequential exploratory mmr study explored the challenges of conducting mmr encountered by iranian teaching english as a foreign language (tefl) faculty members and ph.d. candidates. to do so, 10 faculty members and 25 ph.d. candidates were selected based on purposive sampling in light of their threshold knowledge of mmr. the participants sat a semi-structured interview based on the results of which a researcher-made questionnaire was developed and validated. next, 53 faculty members and 98 ph.d. candidates were selected, based on convenience and purposive sampling, to respond. the findings indicated that researchers involved in conducting mmr in iranian academic settings experienced various challenges in implementing mmr. the most important challenges were rooted in lack of knowledge and skills, lack of sufficient time and lack of knowledge of principled mixing at the interpretation stage. furthermore, the highly recommended solutions in order to deal with these challenges included practical implementation of mmr, changing educational policies, allocating a separate course to mmr, holding training courses and interactive workshops on mmr, and enhancing faculty members’ knowledge of mmr.