Panel Discussion: MMR in the era of COVID-19

Hisako Kakai is a professor in international communications at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. She has published numerous methodological books and articles in both Japanese and English. She also translated John Creswell’s A Concise Introduction to Mixed Methods Research and Kathy Charmaz’s Constructing Grounded Theory (1st ed.). Her Introduction to Mixed Methods Research - The Art of Integration through Quality and Quantity is the first book on mixed methods research ever written by a Japanese scholar in Japanese. Collaborating with Mike Fetters, she has recently published an edited book titled A Guide to Mixed Methods Research - From Research Design to Article Writing Using a Treasure Hunt Approach. Since its inauguration, she has been serving as an editorial board member for the Journal of Mixed Methods Research. She also served as the founding president of the Japan Society for Mixed Methods Research (2015–2017).

Panel 1:
What Is Your COVID Story? JMMR Special Issue on COVID-19

In March 2020, JMMR issued a call for papers for a special issue on novel methodological approaches to address the catastrophic social changes associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The disruption of every social institution by the pandemic—everyone has a COVID story—highlights the need to harness the power of mixed methods research. In July, 2021, the Special Issue featured seven innovative mixed methods methodological studies based or conducted in the United Kingdom, Somalia, the US, Canada, Hong Kong, and Japan. The researchers’ affiliations included politics, international studies, public health, education, evaluation, educational psychology, life sciences communication, family medicine, information science, nursing science, pulmonary medicine, economics, kinesiology, sports, and recreation studies. These studies illustrate innovations from use or integration of SMS radio messaging, genetics research, social media, complexity theory, telemedicine, and digital analytics using computational research, text mining, and natural language processing. The Special Issue authors illustrate advances using complexity theory and a “compound mixed methods” design, longitudinal mixed methods case study, and methodological bricolage or “agile mixed methods”. This milestone Special Issue showcases the strength of mixed methods research and strides in methodological innovation as a beacon of hope for addressing COVID-19 and other grand challenges of the world.

Michael D. Fetters is Professor of Family Medicine and Director of the Mixed Methods Program at the University of Michigan. He received his M.D. from Ohio State University, his M.P.H. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and his M.A. from Michigan State University. Dr. Fetters’ research focuses on the influence of culture on medical decision making, cancer communication, and health services research. His qualitative and mixed methods research interests focus on methodology, particularly integration and applications of mixed methods research. He serves as Co-editor in Chief, Journal of Mixed Methods Research. He authored the Mixed Methods Research Workbook (Sage, 2020). His co-edited book with Hisako Kakai, The Mixed Methods Research Treasure Hunt is now available (Tomishobo, April 2021).

Panel 2:
A fully longitudinal mixed methods case study (FLMM-CS) approach to understanding the illness trajectory of a people with chronic respiratory failure during the COVID-19 pandemic

Dr. Tomoko Kamei is a Professor of Gerontological Nursing at St. Luke’s International University (SLIU) in Tokyo, and a Former Director of SLIU WHO Collaborating Center for People-Centered Care development. She also has appointments with the President of Japan Academy of Home Care (JAHC) and St. Luke’s Society of Nursing Research (SLNR), Board member of Japan Society of Mixed Methods Research (JSMMR) and, as well as Japan Academy of Nursing Science (JANS), Japan Academy of Gerontological Nursing (JAGN), Japan Telemedicine and Telecare Association (JTTA), and Editor of Japan Academy of Community Health Nursing (JACHN), Japan Society of Intergenerational Relationships (JSIR) and other journals. Dr. Kamei has been developing home monitoring-based telenursing systems and education programs for nurses for more than 10 years, and studying about the effectiveness of home-monitoring-based telenursing for people with chronic diseases by using mixed methods. Overall, she has been interested in chronic disease management and quality assurance of nursing care for older adults at home.

Panel 3:
Shifting networks: The legacy of COVID-19

Research about social networks has surged in the past two decades. A plethora of useful concepts and theories has been generated that were then supported by an equally astounding number of empirical data and advanced research methods. However, COVID-19 and the policies to combat it's spread have create a new set of social rules. How well do the findings about pre-COVID social networks transfer to the in-COVID and post-COVID world? In this talk, we will explore this question and develop avenues for further research.

Dominik E. Froehlich is a researcher at the University of Vienna, Austria. His research interests focus on mixed-methods social network analysis and the study of informal learning processes.