The understanding game in discursive textual analysis in Science Education researches: revisiting puzzles and mosaics

Abstract: Sixteen thesis abstracts were analyzed that had been defended from 2012 to 2017 in a Postgraduate Program in Science Education, which used the Discursive Textual Analysis methodology (DTA). The phenomenological question posed was: "What is shown by the DTA methodology in the abstracts of doctoral theses in Science Education?" It was based on a phenomenological exercise, followed by a hermeneutical analysis, with searches for the etymology of words in pursuit of language meanings. As a result, the following categories were determined: "The puzzle: description and a priori theories as pre-understandings" and "The mosaic: the movement for understanding". It was understood that doing research with DTA involves phenomenological-hermeneutic analytical procedures that consist of the description of the perceived phenomenon, followed by the analysis movement in the hermeneutical spiral. With this, the fusion of horizons about the theme was sought, increasing the understanding that the ATD is a methodology increasingly inserted in Gadamerian hermeneutics.