IRM 1501 PORTFOLIO EXAM

IRM 1501 PORTFOLIO EXAM INDEX QUESTION 1 What is document-based research? lOMoAR cPSD| 2 (Page 3) QUESTION 2 Summary of case of Molefe v Mahaeng 1999 (1) SA 562 (SCA) (Page 4) QUESTION 3 Make a distinction between quantitative and qualitative research methodology and provide examples. (Page 5) QUESTION 4 List different sampling tools that may be used by researchers. (page 5) QUESTION 5 Discuss the basic principles of transformative constitutionalism (Page 6-7) QUESTION 6 Find the case of Soobramoney v Minister of Health, KwaZulu-Natal 1997 12 BCLR 1696 (CC). Write an essay about this case (Page 8-9) BIBLIOGRAPHY (Page 10) QUESTION 1 lOMoAR cPSD| 3 Document-based research is also referred to as the qualitative method of research or quantitative research. They are synonyms. Whenever mention is made of qualitative research, you should know that the research is document based and vice versa. Document-based research has to do with the reviewing of sources that are mostly sourced from or found in the library. These sources include law reports, legislation, textbooks, law journals, and so forth. Basically, researchers assess the available literature to find the required answer or what has been written on a specific subject. In doing all this, researchers seek to “immerse themselves in the subject matter” and cultivate contemporary concepts that significantly enhance their understanding and clarification of reality. Hancock, Ockleford and Windridge state that document-based research … attempts to broaden and/or deepen our understanding of how things came to be the way they are in our social world. If the research question involves exploring how people experience something, or what their views are, exploring a new area where issues are not yet understood or properly identified (e.g. before developing questionnaire items), assessing whether a new service is implementable, looking at ‘reallife’ context, or a sensitive topic where you need flexibility to avoid causing distress, your team probably needs to discuss using qualitative methodology. In doing research of this nature, researchers seek to answer or respond to the question “why?”. According to Black, researchers do all this to “study things in their natural setting, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them”. Specifically, they attempt to describe and explain certain phenomena or positions within a wider context. Accordingly, words (written or unwritten), objects, and pictures are collected. Thereafter, a researcher would do a review of literature, for example case law, statutes, and other sources, such as textbooks and journal articles. Generally, any form of research is important when one is searching for an answer to a legal problem. In this context, document-based research is important because of the following: • It provides current answers to the legal problem being researched. • It provides information about what other scholars have written on the subject. • It indicates whether anyone has written on the subject yet. • It indicates whether the subject being investigated has been fully explored and has thus becom