Being a veterinarian (I believe) qualifies as a Dominant Discourse because it is who a person is, what they do for a living, and brings upon prestige and social goods. Gee defines a Dominant Discourse as: “Dominant Discourses are secondary Discourses the mastery of which, at a particular place and time, brings with it the (potential) acquisition of social ‘goods’ (money, prestige, status, etc.)” (8). I believe this to be true with being a veterinarian. I don’t think they get much prestige, however they acquire the status of a doctor (DVM doctor of veterinary medicine) and they obviously get paid money for the job also. One artifact that I am using said the annual salary (as of 2015) was $88,490.00 which equals out to an hourly rate of $47.59. Also, a social good that goes along with this job is that you know you are helping animals and caring for them when they can’t help themselves.
https://www.valuepenguin.com/what-does-veterinarian-do
From the simplified version of the worksheet – a combination I have found would be Believing + Doing/Being… Believing (on the worksheet) is defined as knowledge, so I took that as what academics is required to become a veterinarian. Doing/Being is defined as practices/activities that are enacted in the Discourse and what identities are relevant. I believe this is a combination because as a veterinarian you need to apply the knowledge you learn from school every single day while you’re at work because it is who you are. The worksheet linked below shows all of the details on Believing, Doing, and Being.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HiP4aunDDNGTeKIbeFEbZ5ToUYmVsM9tsGw1UUtVrYM/edit
A potential sign system of the Discourse of being a veterinarian I think would be compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is defined as: a maelstrom of emotions from caring too much or too little – become emotionally drained or unable to recover from the slightest events to feeling numb about both patients and life outside of work. I believe this could determine what type of people are able to stay in the Discourse. This “test” might determine who truly is passionate enough to continue doing this job to help animals, despite how it could potentially affect themselves as the doctor.
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