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Triangulation refers to the application and combination of several research methodologies in the study of the same phenomenon. The concept of triangulation, as in the action of making a triangle, may be traced to the Greeks and the origins of modern mathematics. Introduced in the social sciences in the 1950s ( Campbell & Fiske 1959 ), heavily criticized in the 1980s (see Silverman 1985 ; Lincoln & Guba 1985 ; Guba & Lincoln 1989 ) and 1990s ( Flick 2004 ), triangulation is a postpositivist methodological strategy. It has recently returned to favor as a new generation of scholars are drawn to a mixed, or multimethod, approach to social inquiry ( Teddlie & Tashakkori 2003 ). When introduced in the social sciences the term functioned as a bridge between quantitative and qualitative epistemologies. It was seen as a way of helping qualitative researchers become more rigorous, perhaps allowing them to address a methodological inferiority associated with “a kind of stepchild complex” ( Kamberelis & Dimitriadis 2004 : 2). Advocates of mixed methods research argue that it allows them to answer questions that other methodologies taken alone cannot. Further, it provides “better inferences based on a greater diversity of divergent views” ( Teddlie & Tashakkori 2003 : 14–15). The use of multiple methods in an investigation so as to overcome the weaknesses or biases ... log in or subscribe to read full text