Struwig and Stead (2001) state that primary, secondary and commercial data are the three potential sources of data generation. Primary data are personally generated by the researcher.
Secondary data are data that have already been generated by someone else for other purposes or for a different project. Commercial data are generated for market-research purposes by market research companies who then sell the reports. The two data sources that were used to generate data in this study were primary data and secondary data.
48 McMillan and Schumacher (2011) point out three distinguishing features about data generation in qualitative research designs. They state that qualitative research designs favour generating data on natural occurring contexts. They add that most of the data are generally in the form of words rather than numbers. They also state that a qualitative researcher explores with a number of data generation methods in order to achieve a deep understanding of the phenomenon being studied (McMillan & Schumacher, 2011) and to enhance the credibility of research findings (Picciano, 2004). For this study, multiple-data generation methods which were used were semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Primary data were generated from participants through semi- structured interviews. Three sets of interview schedules were generated for principals, head of departments and teachers and used to generate data from the respective participants. Secondary data were generated through review of documents. Documents that were reviewed were log books for the two schools, with special reference to entries made by subject advisors over a two year period between June 2012 and June 2014, Continuous Assessment and Policy Statement (Further Education and Training Phase: Grades 10-12 (CAPS), Umlazi District Circular Number 1 of 2014.
These documents were analysed to elicit data that refuted or corroborated information that was provided by the participants on subject advisors as instructional leaders.
3.6.1 Interviews
Interviews were a data generation method that was used to generate primary data for this study. Interviews were appropriate for this study because they are a specific type of conversation that allowed the researcher to elicit information from the participants by probing for more clarifications on responses, finding opinions and insights and establishing motives and feelings. Such information enabled the researcher to harvest rich descriptive data which in turn facilitated the researcher’s understanding of how the participants construct knowledge and social reality (Struwig & Stead, 2001; Opie, 2004; Lauer 2006; Shank, 2007; Bell, 2010).
Interviews were also ideal for this study because they also increased the response rate and they were adjustable to any context (Struwig & Stead, 2001; Kelly, 2006; McMillan &
Schumacher, 2011).
The interview protocol that was used for this study was semi-structured interviews. Semi- structured interviews are also known as non-standardised or qualitative interviews (Wayhuni, 2012). Semi-structured interviews were preferred because they reduced purposeless narrations (Lauer, 2006) by allowing for questions to be formulated around topics of specific
49 interest but they still allowed for adjustment and depth of interview (Fouche, 2005).
Accordingly, one interview schedule was generated and learned in advance so as to facilitate a natural flow of the interview. All the interviews were voice-recorded. Permission to voice- record the interviews was sought in advance and in writing from the participants. Voice- recording the interviews ensured that the researcher focused exclusively on what the participants were saying and not being distracted by taking copious notes during the interviews (Fouche, 2005). Secondly, voice-recording ensured that original data was retained (McMillan & Schumacher, 2011). To retain original data, all voice recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim (Maree & van der Westhuizen, 2009). Retaining original data was important because it enabled the researcher to provide information back to the participants so that they could check against misinterpretation and/or bias (Opie, 2004), facilitate the process of checking for information gaps that might have required follow up interviews and for the purpose of data analysis. Recorded interviews gave more credibility to the data as they lessened inaccuracies and they produced a complete record compared to taking interview notes (Lauer, 2006). Participants were preferably interviewed in their homes because the home environment tends to influence participants to provide more truthful responses (Struwig
& Stead, 2001). In cases where home interviews were not preferred, interviews were conducted at a quiet place (McMillan & Schumacher, 2011) in a convenient shopping centre (Struwig & Stead, 2001) that was agreed upon by the researcher and the study participants.
Each of the participants was interviewed once for duration of forty-five to sixty minutes.
Voice recordings of interviews were transcribed verbatim. Confidentiality concerns were addressed by transferring voice recorded interviews to the password-protected computer of the researcher immediately after the interviews are completed and soon thereafter deleting from the researcher’s voice recorder (Wayhuni, 2012).
3.6.2 Documents review
Documents are a record of human activity that is a source of valuable data in a case study research (Olson, 2010). Since documents do not necessarily speak for themselves, the researcher carefully analysed and interpreted the factual information contained in them for meaning (Cohen, et al., 2011) so as to support or refute opinions and claims which were made by the participants (Shank, 2007). The advantage of document analysis was that reactivity was eliminated in that their producers never anticipated that their documents might be analysed at a later stage, thus researcher activity did not influence the document content (Strydom & Delport, 2005; Merriam, 2009) thus documents were a source of rich data.
50 Documents that were reviewed were log books of the two schools where the study was conducted, Policy on Role and Functions of District Offices, 2013; CAPS (Further Education and Training Phase: Grades 10 to 12), Umlazi District Circular 1 of 2014 and the NDP:
Vision 2030 of 2011. Log books were suitable for this study because they were compiled and maintained on a continuous basis and thus they were more formal and structured than personal documents (McMillan & Schumacher, 2011). Policy on Role and Functions of District Offices, 2013; CAPS and Umlazi District Circular 1 0f 2014 and NDP: Vision 2030 were of interest to this study because they alluded to the roles and responsibilities of subject advisors in relation to teacher support and development. Log book entries that were reviewed were the ones that provided deeper insight into subject advisors’ activities and practices in relation to teacher support during their school visits (Olson, 2010) in the period between June 2012 and June 2014.