“How do I do Discourse Analysis?” Teaching Discourse Analysis to novice researchers through a study of intimate partner gender violence among migrant women

Abstract

This article will examine how Discourse Analysis can be taught and used. Specifically, it will first explore how to introduce the basic theoretical and epistemological principles of Discourse Analysis and how these dimensions must be taken into account when students start doing Discourse Analysis. Next, the article will illustrate the basic steps of Discourse Analysis through a research project. We focus our attention on the process of teaching and learning Discourse Analysis using a study of intimate gender violence among migrant women conducted between 2011 and 2014 in Catalonia, Spain1. The migrant women, professionals from psychosocial services and from the judiciary provided the study texts. While there are different approaches to Discourse Analysis, there are also common elements that function as a guide to its use. The results presented are framed within Ibáñez and Iñiguez’s (1997) sociodiscursive and critical psychology and show that it is necessary to follow a series of steps that orient Discourse Analysis ranging from topic identification on the informants’ narratives, to the variations, positions, and rhetoric of the statements, all assuming that language is functional and is constituted as social action.