Some researchers extend the incompa

Some researchers extend the incompatibility thesis to argue that mixing
methodologies can create argumentative incoherence by attempting to “blend
paradigms with incommensurable epistemic and ontological foundations” (Scott and
Briggs, 2009, p. 230; Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004; Sale et al., 2002). They contend
that qualitative and quantitative methodologies draw on incompatible paradigmatic
assumptions that work against any attempt at mixing the two methodologies.
Qualitative methodologies are said to derive from interpretivism and constructivism
where it is generally assumed that reality has no existence prior to the activity of
investigation and where the focus is on shared meanings rather than causal relations
(Sale et al., 2002). In contrast, quantitative methodology is based on positivism and its
assumption of an objective reality that can be studied without researcher influence
(Sale et al., 2002). Given these different paradigmatic assumptions, Sale et al. (2002) argue
that qualitative and quantitative methodologies do not study the same phenomenon and
should not therefore be mixed in any way. They argue further that even when the same
phenomenon is explored through these two methodologies, the definitions of these
phenomena will differ and the approach to knowing the phenomena will also differ, thus
making it impractical to mix the two methodologies