Estructura y movidas de la sección “metodología” en tesis de posgrado de educación

Methodology, as a category, is a determining aspect in establishing the quality of research and assessing whether the knowledge production process is adjusted to epistemological and methodological models that are valid for a specific scientific and discursive community. With respect to the aforementioned, the results of an examination of the rhetorical structure and characteristics of the ‘Methodology’ section in 50 postgraduate theses in education are presented in this article, considering the concept of rhetorical moves suggested by Swales (1990, 2004). We conducted a statistical–descriptive analysis (quantitative approach) and a document review of the theses, which involved classifying, ordering and categorising the main moves that were identified (qualitative approach). As a result, we found four frequent rhetorical moves: 1) type of research; 2) context, population and sample; 3) data collection procedure and 4) information analysis procedure. Additionally, two optional moves were found: one was related to scientific validation and rigour criteria, and the second one was that of ethical considerations. We concluded that knowing the discursive and rhetorical characteristics of this section is relevant for teaching writing to thesis students because reconstructing the methodological path majorly ensures the reliability and validity of the process of constructing scientific knowledge.