Discursive Textual Analysis: preliminary results of the use in Brazilian theses and dissertations

Abstract

Previous experiences of the authors of this work point to the expansion in the use of Discursive Textual Analysis (DTA) as a method of textual analysis in qualitative research. Based on this perception, the analysis method originally conceived by Roque Moraes and Maria do Carmo Galiazzi (2007) constitutes the focus of the study presented here. A research project was structured, entitled Landscape of Discursive Textual Analysis: advances and (re)significations, which received state funding for its realization. In this article, a facet of this project is presented, based on the critical and reflective inventory of Brazilian theses and dissertations that, in their research, used Discursive Textual Analysis (DTA) as a method of analyzing qualitative data. The guiding objective was: To identify Brazilian postgraduate institutions and programs that use Discursive Textual Analysis as a method of analysis in their research. Preliminary results on Brazilian academic production are explained here. A qualitative meta-analysis was carried out, whose initial stage was the survey of works, which are available in a national digital repository, placing the author, institution, program and region of insertion of the postgraduate program. Keeping the coherence with the theoretical assumptions of the authors and of the present investigation, the data were analyzed through the ATD, bringing out the emergence of understandings. For now, the expansion of the method to different areas of knowledge is observed, covering different postgraduate programs distributed in all regions of Brazil. Some weaknesses of the Brazilian dissertation and theses storage system are also pointed out, indicating the need for the researcher, when using it, to have competences related to digital literacy, with a critical position in relation to the observed data. Finally, it is emphasized that the study presented here will be expanded at a future time, in order to produce other understandings or even subsidize criteria for expanding the principles of the analysis method in question.