The ways in which potential problems in terms of validity were addressed by a beginning researcher conducting research into teacher attitudes are described. The researcher, a doctoral candidate, studied the beliefs, attitudes, and values of four experienced high school biology teachers. Principles and practices of research were set into place based on the postulates defined by A. Schutz (1990): logical consistency, subjective interpretation, and adequacy. The analysis had no a priori themes or propositional statements based on a theoretical model that needed to be tested. Instead, inductive analytical procedures were developed. In addition, other principles were set in place for the development of propositional statements that subsequently formed the basis for reporting the findings of the study as a series of nested teacher accounts, each grounded in the data. (Contains 2 figures and 21 references.) (Author/SLD)