The problem of the belief in induction in qualitative danish educational research

There are multiple reasons why it can be problematic that qualitative, educational researchers do not work with explicit hypotheses. The most obvious problem is the lack of ability to falsify statements about the world, which is an important feature of science. A less obvious but more important problem is that the lack of hypotheses also means a lack of ability to accumulate knowledge. No hypotheses means that any work of standardization and comparison is very limited and very time consuming. A field which does not work with hypotheses will be unable to claim that it has produced advances in our knowledge, because it will be unable to properly collect and systematize the knowledge it has produced. 

There is also a more subtle problem at play. Instead of using hypotheses, qualitative researchers tend to use research questions of the form “why”, “what, “how”. Not in the sense of delimiting a subject and formulating a theory with testable hypotheses, but in the sense of using such questions directly in conducting research (doing interviews, making observations etc.). This would not be a problematic thing to do for a journalist. It is a problematic thing to do for a scientist because it limits the potential for falsifying the various, tentative explanations that may seem useful for explaining whatever is observed. Also it reflects a belief in induction, or else a lack of belief that it is worth communicating ones own assumptions and theories. To ask “what” something is or “how” something was as a directly applied research question, means that one expects the world to answer. With no explicit hypotheses, the researcher will be observing his own assumptions fed back to him in the misperceived form of objective observations and analysis. Normally the researcher reveals his preferred deductions by stating one or more hypotheses. When researchers do not do this they effectively withhold information. They distance themselves from the fact that they are part of the research that they conduct. They uphold the positivist notion of an objective reality simply presenting itself as knowledge for their consumption. Which is ironic because qualitative researchers often emphasize the fact that knowledge is grounded, socially constructed etc.