Multimodal and Visual Methods: A Research Conversation

Mixed and multimethods research were our focus for May 2020. 

See what I mean?

How do we communicate when we want to encourage our readers to not only grasp what we are saying, but also to create their own meanings? Research impact depends on our efforts to convey more than a summation of facts. We also need to invite readers in-- be they other academics or students, practitioners or parents. Visuals can help us achieve these objectives. We can think about integrating visual elements into the research from the initial design, instead of waiting to visualize results. This integration of methods, visual approaches and more text- or verbally-based approaches, is of particular interest to qualitative researchers.

Dr. Sharon Ravitch was MethodSpace Mentor-in-Residence for March 2020. Many of her guest posts included striking visuals from her collaborative partner, Dr. Jane Shore. I wanted to learn more about their thinking about visuals and qualitative research. See our conversation here: