Types of Data 121 

Sounders, et al. (2003:188) distinguish between primary and secondary data that must be considered to answer the research questions. In their view, primary data are new data collected for the purpose of answering research questions and meeting the objectives of the research. Secondary data were collected for some other purposes. Secondary data include both raw and published material.

4.4.2.1 Primary sources

A number of primary sources can be utilized in gathering data. It all depends upon the purpose of the researcher. The following paragraphs will discuss the different kinds of primary resources.

Kellehear (1993: 69) states that documents, archives and libraries may be sources of primary source data or for using a so-called secondary source as a primary data source (newspapers, textbooks, novels, etc.). Registries, archives, libraries and museums may supply both the data and the means to analyse it.

Gidley, in Seal describes primary sources as follows:

Primary sources are actual records that have survived from the past, which may include text such as letters or diaries, material artefacts like articles of clothing or shards of bone, visual artefacts which such photographs, audio-visual source such as film or taper recording. These were produced in conditions of proximity to the event described (Seal, 2004:249).

Secondary sources are accounts created by people writing at some distance in either space or time from the event described, e.g. a historical textbook written by someone who did not experience or witness the event being described.

The present research will not be using most of the sources mentioned above; instead, folktales taken from folktale books and directly from storytellers will be used as primary data for analysis in this study.

Sounders, et al. (2003:190) divide secondary data into three main groups, viz. documentary, multiple source, and survey-based data.

 Documentary secondary data. Sounders, et al. (2003:190) claim that

documentary secondary data can be used in research projects that also use primary data collection methods. However, a researcher can use them on their own or with other sources of secondary data, in particular for historical research. Documentary secondary data can include written documents such as notices, correspondence, minutes of meetings, reports, diaries, transcripts of speeches, administrative and public records, journals, books, magazine articles, and newspapers.

Sounders, et al. (2003:190) assert that documentary secondary data include non-written documents such as tape and videos recordings, pictures,

drawings, films and television programmes.

 Survey-based secondary data usually refer to data collected by

questionnaires that have already been analysed for their original purpose. Such data can refer to organisations, people or households. As such, they are made available as compiled data tables or as a computer readable matrix of raw data for secondary analysis, e.g. census, continuous and regular surveys.

 Multiple sources secondary data can be based entirely on documentary or survey data or can be an amalgam of the two. This kind of data are common in documents for company information. According to Leedy and Ormrod (2005:93), A researcher could use written document to provide qualitative data and could be used to generate statistical measures.

 Oral history narratives are part of historical oral traditions that form oral history that was handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. Oral narratives are more about personal experiences, whereas historical, social or cultural events are the subject of all history.

Qualitative methods use both secondary and primary sources when collecting data. Therefore, the researcher selected documentary data as the main source for collecting data. Folktales were selected from books and were analysed to answer the research questions. The following paragraphs will give detailed information on document analysis.

4.6 Documents

Ben Gidley, in Seal (2004:25), describes documentary sources as written sources such as personal letters, diaries, scrapbooks, memoirs, legislations, newspaper clippings, business accounts, and marriage contracts. These records might have been produced at the time of the event described or sometime later. Corbetta (2003:287), concurs that documents are any given material that provides information on a given social phenomenon and which exist independently of the researcher’s actions. He differentiates between documents produced by individuals and documents produced by institutions for purposes other than social research, but for cognitive purposes. Personal documents are produced by individuals and are private in nature. They are also called expressive documents, since they express the feelings, record affairs from a personal perspective, and more generally, they record the personality of the individual who produces them. Autobiographies, diaries, letters, oral testimony, and social documents include material traces especially in disciplines such as archaeology, history and anthropology. Unlike personal documents, institutional documents generally have a public. They consist of written texts and do not only concern the memorable moments of society or culture but also and especially the daily lives of ordinary people (Cobetta, 2003:306).

4.6.1 Use of documents

Documents take on a multitude of forms such as field notes, diaries and journals, records, biographies, autobiographies, formal records, timesheets, timetables, technical documents, minutes of meetings, samples of students’ work, memos, emails, reports, statistics, correspondence, plans, pamphlets, advertisements, prospectuses, directories, archives, stories, annals, chronicles, photographs, artefacts, conversations, speeches, policy documents, newspaper articles, and public records (Prior 2003:173).

The researcher was not interested in all documents mentioned by the above scholar but considered books on folktales as the main source of information.

4.6.2 Advantages of documents

Corbetta (2003:287) asserts that documents are produced independently of the actions of the researcher and therefore differ, i.e. the information is non-reactive in the sense that it is not subject to possible distortion due to the interaction between the researcher and the subject studied. Documents can also be used to study the past.

There are different kinds of institutional documents. Corbetta classifies institutional documents according to their sources into mass media, narratives, educational texts, folktales, judicial material, political documents, administrative and business documents, and physical traces (Corbetta 2003:287). Besides such different kinds of institutional documents, the researcher selected folktales as the main document for analysis.

In support of the advantages of document analysis, Prior (2003:87) postulates that documents are useful in rendering more visible the phenomena under study, however they have to be taken in conjunction with the whole range of other factors occurring at the same time (Prior, 2003:173).

Bailey (1994), as cited by Cohen, et al. (2007:220), lists the following attractions of document analysis:

 It can enable the researcher to reach inaccessible persons or subjects, as in the case of historical research;

 Some documents enable large samples to be addressed (e.g. registers of births, marriages and deaths, census returns, and obituaries in newspapers);  Documents written live and in situ, may catch the dynamic situation at the

time of writing. Some documents may catch personal feelings that would not otherwise surface (e.g. letters, diaries and confessions), especially if they are very personal;

 Using a library collection or archive in a library in a central location, could save costs and time;

 Documents in the public domain written by skilled professionals may contain more valuable information and insights than those written by relatively uninformed amateurs.

4.7 Ethical considerations

According to Kellehear (1993:11), research ethics refers to the responsibility that researchers have towards each other, the people who are being researched, and the wide society that supports that research. Boom and Ling (2010:189) maintain that we should be as ethical when dealing with others as we are in our personal lives, e.g. loyalty, honesty, and integrity are some of the ethical issues in research that need to be addressed.

Regarding the above discussion, the researcher is expected to respect the safety and welfare of the participants and protect their confidences and identity, and to request permissions before engaging with participants. The researcher should also guard against using the theoretical or empirical work of others without acknowledgement. The biggest problem in conducting a research that includes human behaviour is not selecting the right sample size or marking the right measurement but it is doing those things ethically, so you can live with the consequences of your actions. Methods are about ways of proceeding while ethics concerns itself with the most socially responsible way of doing this (Kellerhear, 1993:11).

According to (Kellerhear, 1993:11), ethics is always about fair and honest dealings whether towards active participants, colleagues, state agencies, or owners of resources, for instance, diaries. He further emphasizes the following:

 One should not ignore copyright restrictions, since they protect privacy and ownership. Every reasonable attempt to ascertain the copyright owner should be taken and permission should be sought;

 One should take care not to plagiarize the work of others. Ideas and tracks of text from written records of libraries should always be acknowledged with the appropriate reference in the text (Kelleher, 1993:71).

The present research did not use human beings as a source of information, but folktale books as documents served as the main source of information. Although there was no human contact, the University of South Africa’s procedures were strictly followed, i.e. the researcher applied for ethical clearance via the ethics committee in submitting her proposal. As books, rather than people, were used as the researcher’s main source of information, no potential hazards and precautions needed attention; however, to avoid plagiarism, all books that were used as sources were cited and listed in the bibliography.

4.8 Conclusion

In this section the research methods, research design, data collection, population, and sampling techniques were presented and discussed. Methods of data collection were addressed as well as ethical issues. Even though the research used documents as the primary data, ethical issues such as plagiarism and copyright were discussed to support the trustworthiness of the study.