The "problem" category in education theses, seen from the perspective of rhetorical movements

One of the essential elements of a research is the approach to the problem, as this is a category that largely determines the relevance, justification, delimitation and impact of the work. In this research, 50 master's and doctoral theses in education were analyzed in order to identify the rhetorical structure of the so-called "problem" section. The analysis was made on the basis of the move and sub-move concepts, proposed by Swales (2004). The analysis of the data showed that the category "problem" has the following moves: justification, object of study, goal, background and perspectives, the first two with a high frequency in contrast to the rest of them. The question, the problematic facts and the importance of the problem were found sub-moves which are constantly maintained. Other sub-moves present a greater variation and indefiniteness which generates methodological and communicative problems