Abstract:
The research reported here details how potential problems in terms of validity and reliability in a qualitative science education study were addressed by the author whilst conducting research into the beliefs, values and attitudes of experienced high school biology teachers. In order to address some of the common concerns pertaining to this research, principles and procedures of research design and data analysis were set in place which addressed the three Schutzian postulates of logical consistency, subjective interpretation and adequacy. This was undertaken in order to gain a phenomenological understanding of what experienced biology teachers saw as the possibilities and problems for the teaching of controversial issues using current biology syllabi. The analysis had no a priori themes or propositional statements based on a theoretical model which needed to be tested. Rather, inductive analytical procedures were developed. In addition, other principles were set in place for the development of such propositional statements which subsequently formed the basis for reporting the findings of the study, that is, as a series of nested teacher accounts each grounded in the data.