Qualitative hypotheses

Hypotheses are not commonly disclosed in qualitative research. This can be largely attributed to many qualitative methods not being optimal or suitable for hypothesis testing, and the epistemological curiosity in qualitative research often lacking interest in testing. Nonetheless, qualitative researchers, too, do often operate with hypotheses even though they do not test them. In this essay, I discuss qualitative hypotheses (QHs) as a means to disclose hypotheses without testing them. In particular, the usage, functions, and limitations of QHs are proposed with a contextualising historical overview.