I have been reading on hypothesis in qualitative research. I find convincing suggestions. most do not cite their sources.
Ramachandran - hypotheses are not used in qualitative research. Instead, questions are posed/asked. What are your 'convincing' sources?
Thank you Dean for the prompt response. my students are facing a couple of panelist for their viva who insist on inserting hypotheses for qualitative approach research. Well, there are sufficient and convincing arguments about constructing propositions. My understanding is in the qualitative research approach there is no hypotheses or relationships testing of variables. In quali work we aim to understand culture of work process, meanings of events, meanings of experiences of the informants within a particular social contexts. However, hypotheses about social phenomena may emanate from the research data and findings at the end of the study. Here we construct propositions not for testing, instead of hypothesis in a qualitative research, which then can be thematically analysed to understand subjective experiences of the informants and in this case, the work process being researched. Then we confirm the propositions.
I think it depends on the purpose of the research. In particular, much (most?) qualitative research is exploratory, and thus avoids proposing hypotheses. But, there are some situations where hypotheses are appropriate, such as comparative case studies.
If you want a strong case for not using prior hypotheses, I recommend Lincoln & Guba's book, Naturalistic Inquiry. It is a classic in qualitative research, with over 80,000 citations in Google Scholar.
Thank you David for highlighting, " there are some situations where hypotheses are appropriate, such as comparative case studies". This will fit my argument as mine is not comparative study rather exploratory.
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