Analysing primary source documents

Vital Stats

Who: Professor Christopher Saunders
Where: Department of Historical Studies, University of Cape Town
What: Using a wiki to describe analysis of a document found in the Aluka digital archive and a mapping and timeline tool to contextualise documents spatially and temporally
Why: To develop students’ skills in analysing primary source documents

Dr. Chistopher Saunders was one of the recipients of the 2007 Aluka Award for Innovative Teaching. The Award was in recognition of his use of the Aluka digital library in a Masters course in Research Methodology. The Aluka digital library contains African primary sources ranging from archival documents, periodicals, books, reports, manuscripts, and reference works, to three-dimensional models, maps, oral histories, plant specimens, photographs, and slides in three content areas: African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes, African Plants, and Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa.

Christopher’s research methodology course targets students who come from diverse disciplinary backgrounds in the arts, social sciences, and humanities. He used primary source materials from Aluka’s Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa content to help students develop essential skills in describing and analysing primary source documents—a critically important skill for historians and those in the social sciences.

CET assisted the lecturer to set up a wiki in Vula to enable students to post a draft of their critical analysis of the Aluka documents. The wiki therefore provided the lecturer and other students’ access to students’ draft writing. The lecturer provided the students with feedback while encouraging students to ask for appropriate guidance if they were uncertain.  Students were also expected to respond to another student's draft in the wiki. The draft analyses of the primary source documents were discussed in a series of face-to-face seminars.

Since some students were not history students, they were unfamiliar with analysing primary source material and had limited knowledge of the historical context.  Christopher found it necessary to contextualise the materials for students.  A wiki was created in Vula that provided details for using the Aluka library with links to contextual essays. In addition, an interactive timeline and map were added to the course web site to provide temporal and spatial contextualisation of the documents that students had found.