Randomised trials have experienced a marked surge in endorsement and popularity in education research in the past decade. This surge reignited paradigm debates and spurred qualitative critics to accuse these experimental designs of eclipsing qualitative research. This article reviews a current iteration of this debate and examines two randomised trials that incorporate mixed methods to analyse (a) how randomised trials stand up to qualitative critics and (b) how qualitative methods can enhance randomised trails. Each study presented employs an experimental design with both quantitative and qualitative methods. The author argues that randomised trials can be used to great effect, particularly in conjunction with qualitative methods.

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