‘And How Would You Describe Yourself?’ Researchers and Researched in the First Stages of a Qualitative,Longitudinal Research Project

Abstract

This article discusses methodological issues and some initial substantive findings from the first two years of the 12 to 18 Educational Research Project. The 12 to 18 Project is a qualitative, longitudinal study of girls and boys from the end of Year 6 and as they proceed through each year of their secondary schooling. The article discusses epistemological and ethical issues related to how and with what implications the researchers ‘construct’ the researched in this long-term empirical study. It then discusses background literature and some initial findings in the three areas with which the project is concerned: the development of gendered subjectivity in the years of secondary school; schools, inequalities, and students' changing relationship to curriculum; and students' changing thinking about their futures.