Participatory Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods
Also known as: participatory QUAN-to-QUAL design, community-based explanatory sequential design, transformative explanatory sequential mixed methods, participatory two-phase sequential design
The participatory explanatory sequential mixed methods design combines the two-phase QUAN-to-QUAL structure of the explanatory sequential design with a participatory or transformative worldview. Community members and stakeholders are involved as collaborators — not merely subjects — across all stages, from formulating research questions to interpreting results. Quantitative data are collected and analyzed first; findings that need deeper explanation then drive a second, qualitative phase conducted with and by the community.
Key highlights
- Gives community partners meaningful agency over research design and interpretation, increasing cultural validity and practical relevance.
- The explanatory sequential structure ensures that qualitative inquiry is targeted and theory-driven rather than open-ended and unfocused.
- Builds trust and local research capacity, increasing the likelihood that findings lead to sustained community action.
- Triangulation across phases strengthens conclusions by grounding statistical patterns in lived community experience.
- Well-suited to funding contexts (PCORI, NIH CBPR mechanisms, EU Horizon) that mandate meaningful patient or public involvement.
- Community co-interpretation of quantitative results often surfaces measurement problems or cultural misunderstandings that purely researcher-led analysis would miss.
Intuition
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How it works
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When to use it
Use this design when quantitative results from a community survey raise questions that only community members can answer, when the research context involves marginalized or under-served populations whose perspectives must shape the inquiry, and when funders or ethics require genuine stakeholder involvement beyond advisory roles. It is particularly strong for public health, education, and program evaluation research where community trust is essential. Do NOT use it when the community lacks organizational capacity for sustained engagement — a standard explanatory sequential design is more practical in those contexts. Also avoid it when qualitative follow-up questions are already fully known before quantitative analysis, because the sequential rationale then disappears.
Strengths & limitations
- Gives community partners meaningful agency over research design and interpretation, increasing cultural validity and practical relevance.
- The explanatory sequential structure ensures that qualitative inquiry is targeted and theory-driven rather than open-ended and unfocused.
- Builds trust and local research capacity, increasing the likelihood that findings lead to sustained community action.
- Triangulation across phases strengthens conclusions by grounding statistical patterns in lived community experience.
- Well-suited to funding contexts (PCORI, NIH CBPR mechanisms, EU Horizon) that mandate meaningful patient or public involvement.
- Community co-interpretation of quantitative results often surfaces measurement problems or cultural misunderstandings that purely researcher-led analysis would miss.
- Substantially more time-consuming and resource-intensive than non-participatory designs due to relationship-building and co-facilitation requirements.
- Requires researchers skilled in both mixed methods and community-engaged research — a rare combination that increases training demands.
- Community partners may have varying research literacy levels, requiring ongoing capacity-building that can delay the project timeline.
- Findings remain context-bound; the locally tailored sampling and instruments constrain statistical generalizability to broader populations.
Common pitfalls
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Applications
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Frequently asked
What makes this design 'participatory' rather than just 'community-informed'?
Participation implies shared decision-making power, not just consultation. In a participatory design, community members co-develop research questions, review and adapt instruments, co-facilitate data collection, participate in analysis, and share ownership of findings. Community-informed designs may seek feedback but researchers retain final authority. The distinction matters for ethics, cultural validity, and real-world impact.
Does the qualitative phase always have to follow the quantitative phase?
Yes — this is definitional for the explanatory sequential structure. If both strands run concurrently, the design is concurrent (triangulation or embedded), not explanatory sequential. The sequential ordering ensures that qualitative questions are shaped by actual quantitative results rather than anticipated ones, which is the source of the design's explanatory power.
How do I handle situations where community partners disagree with my statistical findings?
Disagreement is a feature, not a problem. It signals that quantitative results may be culturally misinterpreted, that survey items carried different meanings for respondents than for researchers, or that the community holds valid contextual knowledge the statistics miss. Documenting and exploring these disagreements in the qualitative phase often produces the most important findings of the study.
Can I use this design with a small community?
Yes, but the quantitative phase sample must be large enough for the statistical results to be meaningful — typically at least 30 participants for simple descriptive comparisons, more for multivariate analyses. For very small communities with fewer than 30 potential respondents, a participatory case study with embedded quantitative components may be a better fit.
How is this different from participatory action research?
Participatory action research (PAR) is primarily a qualitative, cyclical methodology oriented toward social change through repeated action-reflection cycles; quantitative data are optional in PAR. The participatory explanatory sequential design is structurally a mixed methods design with a fixed two-phase sequence following systematic analytic conventions from both quantitative and qualitative traditions. PAR is more flexible and process-oriented; this design is more structured and analytically rigorous.
Sources
- 1.Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2018). Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.ISBN 978-1483344379
- 2.Mertens, D. M. (2009). Transformative Research and Evaluation. Guilford Press.ISBN 978-1606230787
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Cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 3). Participatory Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/research-design/participatory-explanatory-sequential-mixed-methods