This paper reports results of an exploratory study designed to identify some of the issues most critical for understanding how naturalistic inqiry is done and why researchers behave as they do. Preliminary results are discussed of an inquiry into ten case studies, The Case Studies in Science Education (CSSE), funded as one project by the National Science Foundation in an effort to understand the current conditions in science classrooms for students in grades K-12. Ten different high schools and their associated junior high and elementary schools were selected to be evaluated qualitatively by field researchers using methods of their choice. Research objectives of this study were to describe what the researchers did to interpret why they chose their particular methods. (CS)