Methods of data collection: documents, interviews, and observations
This study selected the methods of data collection in relation to the qualitative case study research design. Documentary research, semi-structured interviews, and participant and non-participant observations were selected as primary methods of data collection. While using documentary research as the main method of data collection, this study avoided a strict application of conventional classification of documents used in the conventional historical research methods, which divides documents into primary and secondary but also tertiary materials, because such an approach does not always appear to be the best and only method, and most suitable for this study.
The conventional historical research proposes the following categorization of documentary materials. Primary sources refer to those materials that are recorded and written by people who were contemporary to the events and actually participated in or witnessed them. Therefore, they are assumed to be more accurate in terms of the writers’ memory (time) and their proximity to the event (space). The secondary sources are an interpretation of the primary documents because their authors did not witness the actual events (May 1993:180; May, 2001; McDowell 2002:55). In this instance, the author interprets and elaborates the account of the original document. Tertiary materials, if used at all, refer to those sources of information that are based on the account
This study selected the methods of data collection in relation to the qualitative case study research design. Documentary research, semi-structured interviews, and participant and non-participant observations were selected as primary methods of data collection. While using documentary research as the main method of data collection, this study avoided a strict application of conventional classification of documents used in the conventional historical research methods, which divides documents into primary and secondary but also tertiary materials, because such an approach does not always appear to be the best and only method, and most suitable for this study.
The conventional historical research proposes the following categorization of documentary materials. Primary sources refer to those materials that are recorded and written by people who were contemporary to the events and actually participated in or witnessed them. Therefore, they are assumed to be more accurate in terms of the writers’ memory (time) and their proximity to the event (space). The secondary sources are an interpretation of the primary documents because their authors did not witness the actual events (May 1993:180; May, 2001; McDowell 2002:55). In this instance, the author interprets and elaborates the account of the original document. Tertiary materials, if used at all, refer to those sources of information that are based on the account