This essay calls for qualitative policy analysis that can engage strategically with the increased calls for the usefulness of social policy toward the improvement of educational practice. Michel Foucault’s concept of scientificity is used as a tool against the ‘repositivization’ at work in neo‐liberal times and its ‘rage for accountability’ where refusing to concede science to scientism appears to be a central task for those invested in qualitative inquiry. The essay concludes with a sketch of a social science that stays close to the complexities of the social world in fostering understanding, reflection and action instead of a narrow translation of research into practice.