In education research, a polar distinction is frequently made to describe and produce different kinds of research: quantitative versus qualitative. In this article, the authors argue against that polarization and the associated polarization of the “subjective” and the “objective,” and they question the attribution of generalizability to only one of the poles. The purpose of the article is twofold: (a) to demonstrate that this polarization is not meaningful or productive for education research, and (b) to propose an integrated approach to education research inquiry. The authors sketch how such integration might occur by adopting a continuum instead of a dichotomy of generalizability. They then consider how that continuum might be related to the types of research questions asked, and they argue that the questions asked should determine the modes of inquiry that are used to answer them.
The Mantel‐Haenszel approach for investigating differential item functioning was applied to U.S. history items that were administered as part o f the National Assessment o f Educational Progress, On some items, blacks, Hispanics, and females performed more poorly than other students, conditional on number‐right score. It was hypothesized that this resulted, in part, from the fact that ethnic and gender groups differed in their exposure to the material included in the assessment. Supplementary Mantel‐Haenszel analyses were undertaken in which the number o f historical periods studied, as well as score. was used as a conditioning variable. Contrary to expectation, the additional conditioning did not lead to a reduction in the number o f DIF items. Both methodological and substantive explanations for this unexpected result were explored.
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