Reading Mixed Methods Research: Contexts for Criticism

Health and social care researchers, in their haste to “belong” to academia, have adopted the system of mixed methodology research, overestimating its ability to reveal the truth and occasionally imprisoning their thought in one system. In this article, some of the assumptions underpinning mixed methodology research and its discourse are subjected to an interrogative reading. Every reading is an act of criticism and every reader a critic. To read literature is to practice criticism, that is, to read one way and not another. Examples are given of writing regarding mixed methods research in health care from within the critical contexts of author—audience and literature—reality. The aim of the article is to examine the language used to represent mixed methods research within a particular context rather than focus on actual mixed methods research studies.