Handcrafted and Software-Assisted Procedures for Discursive Textual Analysis: Analytical Convergences or Divergences?

Abstract

The goal of this research was to evaluate the procedures of the Discursive Textual Analysis implemented in a handcrafted manner or assisted by the IRAMUTEQ software in order to identify analytical convergences and/or divergences. The theme was the expectations of young students from military colleges in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). Participants were High School students (n = 7). The data collection instrument was the semi-structured interview. The data analysis method was the Discursive Textual Analysis, both in a handcrafted manner and assisted by the IRAMUTEQ software. The main result was the convergence of 62% between both ways to generate categories. The convergences and divergences between the procedures of the Discursive Textual Analysis method presented satisfactory parameters for the context of the research and the interpretative assumptions of qualitative research.