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Hi all

In educational and social research it is very common using mixed method. I’m doing educational research and tending to do triangulation (use more than one method), questionnaire followed by interview. My second supervisor sees that I can save my time by conducting a questionnaire only with open-ended questions which do interview function.

What do you think of his point of view?

I would think whether you choose two methods of raw data collection (questionnaire and interview) or one (questionnaire with open ended responses) you would still want to triangulate your data-by comparing data back to either the existing theory in the field or previous existing empirical research done in the field. Unless of course you were collecting masses and masses of data-such as conducting many many interviews and surveys, so much so that your data is readily quantifiable and replicable- meaning that it stands alone. Hope this makes sense. If my words seem a bit wrong, it has just been a very long week!!!

Thanks Pjlu it does make sense...

No worries and good luck. I'm doing something similar (in term's of educational research) using empirical data, case study, surveys and triangulation with the existing research and models in the field. I sort of like theory but have discovered that I am really an empiricist at heart-a bit disappointing but there you go...