ABSTRACT
The dialectical stance – mixing paradigmatic assumptions from different methodological traditions – is one theoretical stance used to guide mixed methods enquiry. While this stance is characterised in the mixed methods literature as a way to respectfully engage difference in enquiry, questions remain concerning how to define the dialectical stance and integrate different paradigmatic assumptions in mixed methods work. With these questions in mind, the purpose of this chapter is to describe the dialectical stance and offer an example of how it is applied in mixed methods work. To do this, I first discuss the philosophical foundations and key characteristics of the dialectical stance, including its commitment to dialogue, diversity, and acceptance. Then, I offer an empirical example to illustrate how the dialectic stance has been applied to mixed methods practice. Here, I report on a dissertation study, outlining the multilevel mixed methods design and analytic strategies used to put the different paradigms (via datasets) in dialogue in the study. The use of meta-inferences to respectfully facilitate paradigmatic diversity and to generate new insights and lessons learned from employing a dialectic orientation in the study are also discussed.
