Discursive Violence Analysis: Epistemological Advances in Qualitative Research

Abstract

This article outlines a new methodological approach, Discursive Violence Analysis (DVA). Discursive Violence Analysis is a qualitative methodology that is the conceptual convergence of Foucauldian and Fairclough Discourse Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis, and Critical Legal Studies that operationalizes systemic oppression. This conceptual framework expands the existing repository of qualitative methodology that recalibrates how researchers identify, qualify, and interpret various disparate discursive social practices as evidence of racism. The DVA frames how scholars interrogate racism and how racism is institutionalized and codified within education and networking social systems. This article aims to provoke an inclusive and empirical engagement on ways to reimagine epistemology within education scholarship—suggesting that ways of knowing racism and understanding racism have experiential origins. Discursive Violence Analysis is an alternative qualitative means of identifying and describing the fundamental sophistications of discourses that steer, normalize, and legitimize racism. This article begins with a researcher reflexivity that foregrounds my journey toward developing DVA—briefly revisiting my experience as a doctoral candidate. Secondly, this article transitions into a “how-to” guide, mapping the conceptual and methodological process. And lastly, this article ends by explaining the critical assumptions of DVA and research queries for emerging scholars.