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result of interactions (e.g. Guba, 1990, p18). These approaches represent an ontological
tension. Both aspects served as sources of useful data in this study though. Lincoln’s
(1990) charge of paradigmatic perjury may be indemnified with the nineteenth century
pragmatic maxim: if two views carry the same implication for practice then they do not
differ in meaning (Hammersley, 1990).

In terms of theorising, this study departed from a traditional ‘naturalistic enquiry’ (after
Lincoln and Guba, 1985) in that the themes were predetermined (6). However, it is argued
that this is consistent with constructivist science education studies documenting
participants’ understanding of a particular topic (e.g. Watts, 1983 and Kruger, 1990). Data
in this study were discussed in view of the contemporary modelling of energy (3). This
was based on the opinion that this was in accord with science education literature and in
closest accord with the higher levels of physics (e.g. Feynman, 1963). However, this
presented a challenge in that these were not the ways in which most teachers in this study
viewed energy.
7.3.2. Evaluation of Methods and Analysis
This study used the following methods to obtain data on teachers’ perspectives of energy:
(1) questionnaire survey (Munn and Drever, 1996);
(2) semi-structured in-depth interviewing (Kvale, 1996);
(3) concept mapping (Novak and Gowin, 1984);
(4) interviews about instances (Osborne and Gilbert, 1980).

The survey (1) was designed and administered in view of advice in research manuals.
However, some aspects of this advice were not followed strictly, for example the
positioning of ‘demographic’ questions. The survey yielded a lower response rate than
expected. However, no firm conclusions were made as to the reasons for this. It is thus
possible that the survey data was biased, given that a limited number of schools
participated and that the teachers who completed the questionnaire were interested in
participating in the survey. The data says nothing about schools which were not interested
in participating. It is arguable that these factors constrain the generalisability of the
findings to the population.

The survey was intended to yield contacts for the in-depth part of the study. On reflection,
it was apparent that this may have been best facilitated by simply asking teachers directly.

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