The following three main research data collection tools are appropriate for a study such as this one. They are participant observation, interviews and focus group discussion methods.
Participant Observation is a data collection strategy employed in both qualitative and feminist research. It involves the systematic collection and examination of verbal and non- verbal behaviours as they occur in a variety of contexts (Kothari, 2004; Baker, 2006), and often requires the researcher to play a number of roles and use a number of techniques, including their five senses, to collected data. To be explicit, it is the gathering of primary data by the investigator’s own direct observation of relevant people, their actions and situations without asking the respondents (Dawson, 2005). Participant observation occurs when there is intensive social interaction between the researcher and the research participants, in the latter's environment (DeWalt & DeWalt, 2002:92). This study therefore used participant observation to understand the verbal and non-verbal behaviour of the participants.
Interviews are described as a data collection encounter, in which one person, (an interviewer) asks questions of another, (a respondent) Babbie and Mouton (2012). Hesse-Biber and Leavy (2007) concur that interviews are research conducted by talking with people, which involves gathering research participants’ reports and stories, learning about their perspectives, and giving them voice. Kvale (1983:174) defines interviews as a data collection tool whose purpose is to ‘gather descriptions of the life-world of the interviewee with respect to interpretation of the meaning of the described phenomena’. According to Reinharz (2011:19),
‘Interviews are appealing to feminist researchers because they can offer access to ideas, thoughts, memories and stories expressed in the words of the participant, rather than the researcher.’ There are three types of interviews, namely structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews (Welman, Kruger and Mitchell, 2008:165). In this study, semi- structured interviews were employed.
Like focus groups, observation and literature reviews, semi-structured interviews are employed to gather qualitative data. The interviewer formulates and employs an interview guide, consisting of questions and topics to be covered during the interview. Even though the interview guide is followed, the interviewer is able ‘to follow topical trajectories in the conversation that may stray from the guide’,39 when it is appropriate. The semi-structured interview, therefore, not only gives interviewers some choice in the wording to each question, but also in the use of probes, which are an invaluable tool for ensuring reliability of the data (Hutchinson & Skodol-Wilson 1992). Treece & Treece (1986) assert that probes are essential as they enable the researcher to clarify all unclear or ambiguous words and phrases. I The focus group discussions, which is also called group interviewing, is essentially a qualitative method (Babbie, 2007:308). It helps women to ‘collectively change their consciousness by fostering collective identities and solidarities’ (Damaris, 2001: 21).
According to Goss & Leinbach (cited in Damaris, 2001:21), ‘participants gain access to new information, new ways of thinking, to the sense that they have the right to speak and the authority to act, in short, a sense of emancipation’. Most importantly, the focus group consequently creates the practicability for a dialogue among equals, which is potentially empowering under certain conditions, if people come to ‘recognise the patterns in their shared experience’ (Montell, 1999:52), as in the case of women’s consciousness-raising groups in the 1960s. Through focus groups, the researcher is able to observe how people make private opinions public and how that process defines the formation of their stated opinion (Morgan and Krueger, 1998: Babbie, 2007).
4.4.1 Data Collection Procedures
39Interviewing in qualitative researchhttp://fds.oup.com/www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-874204-5chap15.pdf.
Accessed 25/05/2015
Observation, non-hierarchal interview, and focus group discussion methods were casually undertaken in the study, ensuring that core issues were covered. This study was conducted in three phases. The first phase occurred over a period of five years, which entailed the audio- recording of tshigombela and malende lyrics. Then as the first line of analysis protest songs were identified. In the second phase, which commenced in 2010, literature review of indigenous protest music of people in South Africa, other African countries, the United States of America and European countries, was conducted in the third phase. More performances of women of Vhembe performing groups were also observed and audio-recorded, in order to explore the amount of protest registered in the latest lyrics. These were followed by interviews with vharangaphanda (group leaders), as well as vhasimi vha dzinyimbo (leaders of songs). In the third phase focus group interviews were conducted. Other people interviewed were cultural activists.
4.4.2 Sampling
The term sample implies the simultaneous existence of a population, of which a sample is a smaller part (de Vos, 2004:198), which is studied in an effort to understand the population from which it was drawn, and this implies that information about an entire population is obtained by examining only a part of it (Kothari, 2004). In simple terms, a sample is a small portion of the total number of people who constitute the participants of the study. The purposive sampling method was utilized, and this type of sampling is chosen with a ‘purpose in mind’ (De Vos, 2004), based on predefined criteria.
For the purpose of the interviews, initial contacts and briefings of the research process were made with the group leaders of the three groups from Gokolo, Tshikweta and Malavuwe.
These were leaders of tshigombela and malende performing groups, whose songs articulated gender issues, protest against lack of service delivery in their villages, HIV/AIDS, as well as all kinds of social ills. The respondents were asked about their experiences, interpretation of performances and gender issues expressed in the protest lyrics.
4.4.3 Research Setting and Data Collection
The research setting of this study cannot be reduced to just one location. Throughout the study, the research setting changed depending on the purpose of the performances. The Phalaphala fm’s40 indigenous music performances took place in different municipalities within the Vhembe District, namely, Thulamela, Makhado, Mutale, and Musina. Data was also collected during the activities of the Amplifying Community Voices programme, organised by the University of Venda’s Centre for Rural Development, performances at cultural celebrations in the respective royal residences, at the Indigenous Annual African Arts Festival (IAAAF) at the University of Venda, Heritage Month celebrations, as well as other University of Venda’s cultural activities. Other opportunities for data collection were during celebrations organised by different mahosi (royal leadership), in their misanda (royal residences). The interviews as well as focus group discussions were held at the University of Venda. Further follow-up data collection activities were conducted at the groups’ respective villages, at misanda (royal residences), which served as the rehearsals venues for all indigenous musical performances.
4.4.4 Data Analysis Content Analysis and Coding
Data analysis refers to ‘the process of bringing order, structure and meaning to the mass of collected data’ (De Vos 2002:339). In the study, recorded data in the form of lyrics, interviews and focus group discussions were captured in Luvenda (Venda language) in order to ensure reliability and integrity of the research findings. Additionally audio and video recordings of performances were analysed in order to determine themes. Data was translated into English before analysis.
The key feature of content analysis is that the many words of the text are classified into much smaller content categories (Weber 1990). Content analysis starts with identifying and quantifying certain words or content in text with the purpose of understanding the contextual use of the words or content (Miles and Huberman, 1994). This quantification is an attempt not to infer meaning but, rather, to explore usage, hence, the focus is on discovering underlying meanings of the content (Babbie, 1992).
40 A radio station that broadcasts in Tshivenda, based in Polokwane
Through content analysis, themes emerged and others formulated. These included gender inequality (GI), gendered violence (GV), gender roles (GR), social and political inequality between women and men (SPI), lack of service delivery in rural areas (LSD), poverty (P), unemployment (UE), African feminism, AF, cultural practices (CP), women empowerment (WP), Motherism (M), Stiwanism (S), Cultural feminism (CF), Third-World feminism (TWF).
Discourse Analysis
Gee (2011:x) describes Discourse Analysis as ‘the study of language-in-use, and thus any theory of Discourse Analysis ‘offers a set of tools that pervades and organises the investigation of language-in-use.’ Fairclough (2001:4) maintains that language ‘affects our understanding of the world around us, since it is intended especially to mobilise us.’
Therefore, this study employed some tools proposed by Gee (2011), which are chosen taking into consideration the fact that he pronounces that ‘anyone engaged intheir own Discourse Analysis must adapt the tools to the needs and demands of their own study’ (Gee, 2011: x).
This study employed Discourse Analysis of the women’s responses during interviews, focus group discussions, as well as tshigombela and malende lyrics. The tool which was employed in this study was adapted from Gee (2011) and Fairclough’s (2001) strategies, and encompasses the following features:
Language and Social context of the lyrics;
Relationship between language and power;
The general target audience;
Language use in relation to social, political and cultural aspects;
Power relations and sexism and how they are manifested in the lyrics;
Power and how it involves control;
The use of irony or metaphor for certain communicative aims;
The use of linguistic politeness;
Aspect of power, domination, and social inequality;
Male violence against women;
Oppression, injustice and inequality;
Sexism; and
Social inequality.
The features above were employed in the analysis of data.