Collective Biography and the Problem of Sample Size: Or, When Is Enough Enough?

• In Event: Methodological Issues in Biography and Documentary

Abstract

This paper asks a methodological question of collective biography: how many cases are needed to draw cogent inferences? It reviews recent collective biographies for their methodological discussions and examines my own work in the collective biography of teachers to see when the research reached saturation. How many cases does it take to give us a strong sense that we know all we are likely to know? When does the law of diminishing returns make further work irrelevant? The paper concludes that no purposive sample would have yielded the sorts of results I have been able to reach. Collective biographies relying on a fraction of their research universe may miss much; authentic saturation may require a sample size approaching one hundred percent.

Author

• Ronald E. Butchart, University of Georgia