Power, Intersectionality, and Integration: A Justice-Centered Framework for Mixed Methods Research With Minoritized Populations

Mixed methods research (MMR) is frequently promoted as well suited to examining complex social inequities, particularly in studies involving minoritized populations. By combining qualitative and quantitative approaches, MMR promises methodological breadth and interpretive depth. However, this promise remains insufficiently interrogated. Integration, the defining feature of MMR, is not epistemologically neutral; it is a nexus where structural, methodological, and epistemic power converge. Without explicit attention to these dynamics, integration may inadvertently reproduce the hierarchies it seeks to challenge by privileging certain forms of evidence while marginalizing experiential and community-based knowledge. This paper reconceptualizes MMR as a justice-centered, intersectionality-informed practice grounded in Critical Dialectical Pluralism. Rather than treating intersectionality as a framework for demographic inclusion alone, the paper foregrounds how power shapes methodological decision-making, integration, and interpretive authority within MMR. In response, we propose a justice-centered framework operationalized through four interrelated procedural pillars: pre-design community diagnostics, methodological parity through Transparent, Rigorous, Equitable, and Ethical sampling, a discordance protocol that treats divergence between strands as analytically meaningful, and shared interpretive governance that broadens participation in integration and meta-inference construction. Collectively, these pillars reposition integration as a reflexive and dialogical process through which structural conditions, intersectional complexity, and competing interpretations remain visible within integrated findings. By embedding reflexive accountability and attention to power across the research process, the framework positions MMR as a more structurally responsive and epistemically accountable approach to knowledge production.