Abstract:
This article discusses issues of methodological warrant in a qualitative, longitudinal study with
only a small number of subjects. The 12 to 18 Project was designed to contribute to research on
gender, class and schooling. The rationale for a design using only 26 students spread between four
schools is explained. It is argued that even with small-number research, issues of selection and
comparison are important—but emphasis on techniques of data-treatment and comparison is
misplaced. The meaningfulness and contribution of studies of this type lie in multiple acts of
design, comparison, reflexive interpretation and dialogue with the broader field, and the more that
such studies emphasize technical analytic procedures, the more they undermine their warrant to be
anything other than a report on a small sample. Illustrations of interpretations of the data and from
the data are given.
