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In a comment on this post, introduce a high school student to the concept of Discourse and use it and at least one of the other terms in “the Discourse family” to explain something about your own Discourses or Discourses you see in the world.
Feel free to build on and revise the paragraphs you wrote summarizing Gee.
Be sure to:
- Assume that your reader has no prior knowledge of Discourse,
- Write introductory topic sentences that provide your reader with context: describe Gee’s overall purpose in introducing the term Discourse to literacy studies, and the specific role Discourse plays in his argument (paraphrase the gist of his first paragraph),
- Define “Discourse” (in more than one sentence), provide and explain illustrative examples that would make sense to your high school reader.
- Explain the ways we acquire or “get” primary and secondary Discourses,
- Use at least two passages from Gee: one should be paraphrased, the other directly quoted.
- “Frame” all paraphrased and quoted passages (see the example on pp. 47-8 of They Say/I Say) by
- Using a signal phrase (Little Seagull pp. 103-5, also They Say/I Say pp. 39-40, 46) to introduce ideas and passages that you paraphrase and quote,
- Providing your reader with the context for this passage: describe Gee’s purpose for the passage, and your purpose for introducing the passage into this paragraph,
- Signaling your purpose in bringing forward the passage as you enter the quote or paraphrase
- Providing a parenthetical page reference for each paraphrased or quoted passage,
- Explaining significant parts of the quote or paraphrase through pointing back to keywords (analysis), and using concrete examples drawn from your experience to help your reader understand it (explanation/translation),
- Making a clear point about the significance or utility of the passage,
- Draw a conclusion/make a point about how Discourse can help us understand something specific about the world.
- Use one or more of the most important words in your paragraph to write a topic sentence for a well-connected paragraph that could follow the one you just wrote.
According to James Paul Gee, Discourse is the way of living, meaning it’s how we talk, act and react within a group of people (Literacy, Discourse and Linguistics: Introduction pp. 6). We act differently based on the people we are surrounded by and the guidelines of that Discourse. The fact that “We must say or write the right thing in the right way while playing the right social role and (appearing) to hold the right values, beliefs, and attitudes.” (Literacy, Discourse and Linguistics: Introduction pp.6) means that we can belong to many Discourses. We also have to act and talk a certain way in order for us to be accepted into that Discourse. Everybody belongs to multiple Discourses, such as someone at work, at home, with friends or with family. Personally one Discourse I belong to is the Boy Scouts. I was a leader and had to keep everybody in check ontop of doing everything thing that I need to do. I helped teach the young ones to stay disciplined and help out with the community. I’ve done well over 300 hours of community service which helped set an example for the less mature people. We also had to dress formal and eventually talk formal with others. This is completely different than Ultimate Frisbee, There I had to lead by putting my heart where everybody could see it. I needed to lead by example so everyone could see just how hard they have to work. Although I was not the best player by any means, but I probably got the most playing time because I was always working as hard as I could. At the same time I could goof around with my teammates because we had a close bond and I wanted them to like me.
When being in a Discourse, you pick up the way they talk, act and other characteristics. This shows that you can pick up characteristics from multiple Discourses that others may not have. Some can be as simple as an accent, others can be as complex as the rituals or the actual word choice when they talk. These characteristics can be more helpful than others for instance your word choice in the city is gonna be more formal than that of the people in the country. Yet others can be harmful like if you are in the wrong Discourse you can be susceptible to drugs and violence. So depending on what Discourses you belong to, depends on what characteristics you will adopt.
According to Gee, Discourse can not be taught, only learned through experience. Meaning it can not be taught in a classroom, only through being exposed to it through lots of time. Having a mentor may help you learn the Discourse faster but they can not teach you. You can not teach Discourses because each one is a different environment and can vary drastically. For instance the marines are renowned for being very strict, serious and all about trying to protect you while the local gym is more light hearted and based on trying to help you stay fit.
In the article “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics” by James Paul Gee, Gee introduces the term “Discourse”. His purpose of introducing “discourse” to the readers is to get them to see how important they are to everyone. He states Discourses “are forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitude, and social identities”(Gee 6). He believes that Discourses are the key to understanding social practices, that knowing what they are will lead you to be successful in one’s ongoing future. According to Gee a discourse is a group that one would identify with. Every person has many discourses. Gee describes Discourses as things like your gender, what you do for a living, if you play a sport, how old you are can be determined as discourses. The term “discourse’ is pretty much unexplainable, an example would be my discourse is that I am a female dancer. We get discourses when we get interested in a particular thing. When “mastering” a discourse one cannot simply be taught, it take more than just steps to it. A person has to have time and patients, you kind of have to learn it yourself. With Discourses there are two Levels of Discourse Primary and Secondary. Primary Discourse is what people understand with their first interpretation with “Discourse” in itself, it is often when people close to you show you the ways of the world. Secondary is when a person then goes further into learning about Discourse and they use places like school, church, and so on to continue to explore what a Discourse is and why they are so important.
Gees first paragraph starts off with introducing “psycho and “socio”, which contributes to literacy studies. He wants everyone to know that its more social practices than language because he thinks its more socially important and has more to it.
According to Gee, Discourse means a “way of being in the world” Ways of being in the world to me means being yourself and getting into social groups you belong to. Now you have to remember everyone has different discourses, nobody’s the same. A specific group with specific beliefs, talking,values and ways of acting (6). Discourse can also be defined as a description of yourself in each of the groups you belong to. For example, I am a brother, student, athlete. My value changes for each group. When I am a student I value getting work done and being organized and prepared for each class, while as a brother I value, looking out for my sister, being mature and responsible.
Gees main point of all this is because he wants to make a clear point that language is more than grammar, theirs more to it, like values, attitude and beliefs. Now primary and secondary discourses, we obtain primary discourses by being in various social groups in America. Secondary discourses are more open, like churches schools, state and national businesses and local stores (Gee 8)
Alex, I recognize several elements of the definition of Discourse in your post: that they’re ways of being in the world, that they are defined by combinations of traits, and more.
I think a high school reader might have trouble understanding some of those elements as currently written, and might also have trouble stitching them together into a whole, in part because some sentences need follow-up detail and explanation, and in part because the sequence of ideas could use more tactical arranging to account for the needs and experience of your reader. Think about organizing your paragraph by what your reader needs to hear first and how much detail they need to understand, then moving on to what they need to hear next and so on….
A Discourse is more about social practices then it is about language. In a paper written about Discourses by James Paul Gee he give an example of what I mean. He talks about going into a bar sitting next to his tattooed drinking buddy and say may I have a match please. What was said was correct in a grammatical sense but wrong because of how it was said. Discourses are not just about saying but how you say things in certain social situations. Gee also goes on to give examples about how doing, being, valuing, and believing are all combinations to what is a Discourse. Gee also explains how a discourse is a sort of identity kit you have to have the right costume, instructions, knowledge of how to act, and what to say. Some examples of an identity kit he gives is a doctor, student, teacher, and so on. Another key phrase I wanted to explain was a primary Discourse. Gee gives this Definition for the phrase ” All of us, through our primary socialization early in life in the home and peer group, acquire (at least) one initial Discourse.” (pg7) So In other words where I grew up in a rural town in New Jersey my friends family and life style gave me my primary Discourse. This primary Discourse that I have would differ from someone who grew up in New York city.
Hi Ian, I can see this as a solid effort to start explaining Gee’s ideas of Discourse to a HS reader. I think your paragraph is following the structure of Gee’s article too closely, probably. Instead, think about what your reader needs to know first, and what kind of support s/he’ll need to make sense of Gee’s most important ideas. Also, think about how important your examples will be for this reader. Without them, Gee can be pretty abstract. How could you build on your New Jersey example?
I see you setting up a quote with a signal phrase. But the quote you chose doesn’t define as you suggest in your entrance to it. The quote explains how you get a primary Discourse, so the signal phrase should indicate that. Coming out of the quote you move to the example. I think a reader would need help translating the quote too.
Janice knew that discourse is a way of life. That it is everywhere and no where at the same time. When she did her readings she understood that there is always a better meaning to the piece in a whole. While in class her teacher gave her an assignment, find a passage wishing a given text for ‘Discourse’ material and also have to think of its others as well. Starting with Discourse to primary and secondary discourse, then to dominant and non dominant discourse. Surprisingly all of these are more involved in her life more than just the words themselves. As said before ‘ It is everywhere and no where at the same’. So following her teachers assignment she read Gee’s “Literacy, Discourse, and linguistics: introduction” and began to scour the pages. She discovered, with knowing little to nothing about discourse that he very thoroughly expresses using all of these ideas. His main purpose in introducing the term Discourse in regards to literacy studies is that Discourse, with a capital “D”, is what you know now. All of the words you were given were put into language and made into sentences. In other words, Gee believes that Discourse is a way of life, with how you are trained to act in society.
To go against what he already said that it is the way of life, Janice discovered that he goes off of the idea that Discourse is just this one set idea. Which it isn’t it is many other things. She questions herself in saying that ‘ his main idea is basically the way we learned everything, yet there is so much more to learn. One place that especially stood out to her was ” These tests take on town functions: they are gates to exclude ‘non- natives’ (people whose very conflicts with dominant Discourses show they were not, in face ‘born’ to them.” She realizes that not everything is not taught to them but it is learned.
There are moments here where it looks like you’re working towards an understanding of some specific part of Gee’s theory, but I think a HS reader would struggle to learn much about it from this.
In the journal entry, “Literacy, Discourses, and Linguistics: Introduction,” James Paul Gee does an awesome job at introducing a new way of literacy studies. In Gee’s writing he introduces the term Discourses to this new way of literacy studies. Gee describes the specific roles each discourse plays in our life’s and how it effects each one of us. For those who don’t know a discourse is a written or spoken language. In Gee’s writing he focuses upon the many different discourse families we both experience and see in everyday society. Although we don’t realize it we experiences these discourses on a daily basis. As a high school student you will experience a lot of primary and secondary discourses. Each discourses relates to who you are and how you go about your everyday routine. A primary discourse are the things that influences how one acts the way they do. When broken down a primary discourse is an unsaid set of rules followed at home. This discourse reflects on how you act, how you dress, your attitude to things and your overall perspective on life. Gee’s writes, “This initial Discourse, which I call primary discourse, is the one we first use to make sense of the world and interact with others. Our primary discourse constitutes our original and home-based sense of identity and I, believe, it can be seen whenever we are interacting with “intimates,” in totally casual social interactions.”(pg.7-8) This passages truly shows the significants of primary discourse within our home life and how we interact with others. Meanwhile secondary discourses have a bit of a different meaning. Secondary discourses are someones social influences, the influences that give someone a certain ways of talking and acting within a specific social setting. Any high school student can see this within sports. Each high school team has a different way of how the athletes should act and how things are run. Each sport requires a different attitude and perspective to play.
Hi Hannah, this definition of Discourse (“a discourse is a written or spoken language”) looks like it’s taken from somewhere other than Gee’s text because it focuses so exclusively on language, which is precisely what Gee wants to move beyond.
I like the choice of HS sports as an example for this audience. I think it has a lot of potential for development. You’ll probably need to devote more words to that example.
As you come out of the long quote on Primary Discourse, you talk about the significance of the idea, which I like, but which I think comes too soon. First, I think your HS reader would need some help understanding the quote. Do some explanation first, then present examples, then move onto significance – maybe in a separate paragraph.
What is Discourse? At first glance it is a lot like language. Because all language is a part of Discourse but Discourse is not limited to just language. Discourse is in my opinion, the sum of all forms of communication between us. Best friends can communicate on more than just conversation; glances and gestures are often enough to convey the story even without words being exchanged. That is also a Discourse. Discourse is something that you are, when you’re a master of it, completely unaware that you’re doing it. Like learning to ride a bike, it becomes automatic. Discourse is more than language because with language, “a person can know perfectly the grammar of a language and not know how to use the language” (5). Conversation has a lot to do with time, place, presence, attitude, and ideals. Again, it is the overall of communication.
There are many types of Discourse. Primary Discourse is the first that we acquire. This is the one we learn in our early years, starting even before we learn how to talk. Traditionally, this is the same as our parents and family. This is our baseline, the Discourse that guides our interactions and teaches us who we are (7-8). It is the first of many identity-kits. Primary Discourses are not equal, they change throughout cultures. Because values and traditions change throughout cultures. Discourses are influenced by everything because they are apart of everything. Even climate and location have an impact on Discourse.
Secondary Discourses are ones that we learn after the Primary. Those are often split into Dominant and Non-dominant Discourses. As James Paul Gee explained, “Dominant Discourses are secondary Discourses the mastery of which, at a particuar place and time, brings with it the (potential) acquisition of social “goods” (money, prestigem status etc.) Non-Dominant Discourses are secondary Discourses the mastery of which often brings solidarity with a particular social network, but not wider status and social goods in the society at large” (8).
Discourses have many layers to them. Like life which can be built up from atoms, to cells, to organs, to people, Discourses are the result of many small working pieces coming together to make something big. But like most ideas, it is very abstract and hard to make a reality or an understanding of it unless someone actually creates it. Like ice skating, you can be told all the dynamics of it, how to stay balanced, and how to move, but until you actually do it, you won’t understand it.
Discourses are powerful because when when they are different across cultures and societies, they still unite people and groups. I’m making the claim that Discourses are essentially another word for communication.
Hi Cali, I can see you actively thinking your way through Gee’s theory of Discourse. I think you’re doing a lot of the heavy lifting yourself at the beginning of this introduction. Maybe too much. Notice how you don’t introduce Gee himself til the third paragraph, and you start without a definition of Discourse, instead offering some statements about what Discourse is like and what it feels like to be a master of a Discourse? If I’m a HS reader, I likely feel like that’s putting the cart before the horse. Without any background knowledge, the HS reader may need a different sequence of ideas, and your presentation of those ideas should be clear that you’re presenting someone else’s ideas as your build your own.
As you build on this classroom activity, how do you imagine reworking this introduction to better serve the HS reader?
Discourse in the very generic way of looking at it is an “identity kit” as Gee calls it. Gee goes on to explain “It comes with an appropriate costume and instructions on how to act, talk, and often write”(Gee page 7). Basically its the fundamental way of learning. The way people acquire discourse is by social experiences, not by sitting in a class room. Discourse is broken up into two parts primary and secondary discourse. Primary discourse is “the one first used to make sense of the world and interact with others” (Gee page 7). While secondary discourse is “these fluently to the extent that we are given access to the institutions and are allowed apprenticeships within them” ( Gee page 7). In other words primary discourse are things that influenced his at a young age and secondary discourse are social interactions. Discourse helps everyone in many different ways it helps people understand literacy, different cultures, other peoples behaviors, etc. It gives the person trying to learn ways that the topic will help. Discourse help people realize that the basics of learning and understanding are taught to you by doing and understanding through personal experiences.
Hi Kenny, you manage to convey quite a bit about Discourse in this paragraph. Your basic strategy is one line to convey the idea, one line to explain. I wonder whether that strategy would provide a HS reader with the guidance s/he needs to be able to make sense of Gee’s ideas. What could you do to elaborate and help this reader out more?
James Paul Gee came up with a topic which he referred to as Discourses. These Discourses are “saying(writing)-doing-being-valuing-believing combinations”(6). Basically what this means is that Discourses are how we live, communicate, and act in the world. Gee refers to Discourses as an “identity kit”(7), when you learn something new you are not only learning the concept, and also how to act while using that concept.
So, you want to know how to acquire a Discourse? Most likely you already have acquired quite a few; for example, if you are a member of a team, a student, or have a job you already have Discourses for each of these. Learning a new language is also a great way to acquire a new Discourse.
You have had a Discourse from the moment you learned how to talk. This is called primary Discourse. Your primary Discourse is picked up from your home life as a child. You learn how to talk and act from what you see from your parents, brothers and sisters and other family members. It is the first way you learn how to “make sense of the world”(7).
When you learn a new Discourse you are basically learning how to act, talk, and think in a way that relates to that certain Discourse, and it also allows you to pick up when others have the same Discourse as you. Discourses are a great way to expand your knowledge on new topics.
Hi Blake,
I want to direct your attention to these two sentences near the top of your comment: “These Discourses are “saying(writing)-doing-being-valuing-believing combinations”(6). Basically what this means is that Discourses are how we live, communicate, and act in the world. ” The first sentence offers a definition, the second seems to be a paraphrase meant to explain the definition in easier terms. But how well does the second sentence clear up any possible reader confusion about what “saying…believing combinations” means? What it’s really doing is explaining how Discourses function in the world, which is a good thing to discuss, but not before you help your reader make sense of the basic idea of Discourse. I think maybe you’re following Gee’s lead here. He does the same thing at the bottom of p. 6 and top of p. 7. But his reader already has three big examples under their belt before they get to these two ideas.
I’d also ask you to think about the balance between presenting concepts in abstract terms and explaining them in concrete examples in your post so far. How could you improve that balance to help a HS reader better understand Gee and how to apply his ideas to the world?
James Paul Gee writes a paper on Discourse which is a written or spoken communication or debate. What this really means is that it is unspoken rules of a group in society. How to act, speak, and basic human interactions. Some of the ways that we get different Discourses is through experience and interacting with different people till you find a group that really welcomes you. This can be considered an “identity kit”. Similar to halloween you try on different costumes till you find one that fits. As Gee states “It is not what you say, but how you say it.”(Pg. 5) Body language and how you carry your self image reflect peoples idea of you.
Some of the different techniques that are used to create this image can be found by using the secondary discourse. A secondary discourse is the way of going to an institution and having different apprenticeships. For example what Gee would call a Dominant Discourse in simpler terms is the school you go to. When thinking about it I put it in the terms of what college you picked to go to. Then with non -dominant Discourses this would be the friends or people that you surround yourself with. Both the Dominant and Non-Dominant discourses build up to the secondary discourses.
Discourse helped me realize that the way you act, speak, and dress can really effect the way that people see you in certain social settings. I’ve really started to see this recently because I’m from Colorado and recently moved to Maine to go to school and its clear that the discourses here are different from anything I’ve ever grown up with.
Hi Meg,
That first definition of Discourse looks like it came from somewhere other than Gee’s article. Maybe a dictionary? Gee’s actively trying to expand that notion of Discourse, and you quickly move towards that expanded notion. But I wonder if a HS reader would be confused by how quickly you move from Discourse being about speech and language, to it being about rules, social practice and identity. Notice in the first paragraph how your short little sentence bits introduce a bunch of new ideas really quickly, without a lot of explanation. Also notice the imbalance between the space you give to delivering Gee’s abstract ideas and the space you devote to explaining and exemplifying them.
How could you introduce your reader to the more expanded notion of Discourse right away with out totally losing him or her?
According to Gee, Discourses are the “saying-doing-being-valuing-believing combination” (p 6). Discourses are an identity kit that teach you how to act, talk, and write like your particular role. Discourses also teach how to recognize someone who is the same as you, for example; Gee is a trained linguist and he is also trained to recognize other linguists.
Acquiring a discourse is much like acquiring a second language. One cannot just simply be instructed to learn a discourse and do it, but instead they must learn from someone who has already mastered the discourse and get real hands-on experience with the social practices (p 7).
One example of a discourse can be the identity kit to a business man. He has to dress professionally with a suit and tie, he has to have a professional attitude, and be able to talk like a business man. This business man must also be able to recognize other businessmen. With all these attribute, this businessman has created his discourse.
One can encompass many different discourses. You have your primary discourses as well as your secondary discourses. Primary discourses come from the home when you are a young child and are often passed down or inherited from your family members. Secondary discourses come from your outside environments such as peers at school, churches, and other community groups.
Discourse can help us understand literacy and linguistics through real life examples.
Hi Ciara, part of getting a HS reader to engage Gee is motivating him or her to want to understand Gee. Try some topic sentences early on, ones that create a reader need or interest in understanding this theory.
You offer a bunch of examples, but many are little seeds of examples. You rely on the reader to elaborate on the examples. But given your HS reader, I think that reader is going to need you to guide them more. So, explain your examples more.
Gee introduces the idea of discourses in his passage “Literacy discourse, and linguistics: introduction”. Discourses are ways of being in the world (p. 6), initially it is how a individual integrates as an individual and their social identity. You can have multiple discourses. For example, you wouldn’t act the way you would with your best friends at a party when you’re at work with your boss.
Gee’s purpose of integrating discourses in his article is just trying to open a new approach. He proposes that he thinks there’s a new way of talking about literacy in linguistics and I believe that he thinks its going to help writers with their work. In his article he says “I believe in a new field of study, integrating “psycho” and “socio” approaches to language from a variety of disciplines, is emerging, a field with we might call Literacy studies” (p.5). To better back up his reasoning for introducing discourse he says “A discourse is a sort of “identity kit” which comes complete with the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act, talk, and often write, so to as to take on a particular role that others will recognize. ” (p.7) . Some examples he gives to back up that quote is being an American, Russian, man or women, doctor, hospital patient, or teacher. You act a certain way when you are given a certain role.
Anyone can acquire a discourse, but you cant acquire one by just learning. You acquire a discourse through experiences or how gee describes it as an “apprenticeship”.
Hi Chelsey,
As I mentioned in class, it seems to me as if Gee’s own article is providing the structure for your post in that you’re presenting his ideas in the sequence he does. Let the structure of your response be dictated by your reader’s needs. What would a HS reader need to know first? What kind of examples will help him or her understand your point about Gee?
Notice too places where you’ve taken words directly from Gee’s article that aren’t fully paraphrased or marked with quotations.
It seems clear to me that your understanding of Gee is improving; the next step is to figure out how to convey that understanding to readers.
Discourse. Such a big word with many different meanings. When linguistic James Paul Gee introduces us to it he says, ” Discourses are ways of being in the world; they are forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes and social identities. ( pp bottom of 6 and top of 7)”. Along with this we are introduced to primary and secondary discourses (8). That is the 2 types that discourses are broken into. Primary are the discourses you learn at home. An example of that could be your values and beliefs. For instance it could be something so simple as being home for dinner or something more complex like your religion. Secondary discourses are those that we learn when we aren’t in our home. An example for me would be cheer-leading. We have different values and rules that we follow then were given to me at home. For instance we always have to be at practice and hair must be up for games with hair bows in.
Then you realize that your primary and secondary discourses can have conflict. This is okay, it happens to everyone. For me it was being home for dinner to eat with the family. When I got into cheer I missed so many dinners with family because practice times ran from 430-6 pm.
There are also things tied to your secondary discourses. Dominant and non-dominant discourses (8). Dominant are those that will get you somewhere in life. The discourses that you could make a life off of because it can give you money and status. Non-dominant discourses are those that will give you an “in” with a group of people. This could be something like your friend group, or work group. Discourse is just a fancy way of condensing all of the things in your every day life and where you get them.
Hi Michaela, I think you’re making progress on these concepts. In terms of framing quotations and paraphrases, look back to the first two you use: 1) the quote on “ways of being in the world” and 2) the paraphrase of primary and secondary Discourse. Think about the degree to which a high school reader could make sense of those ideas. I think maybe there’s too much new information being presented too quickly. What kind of additional support could you offer the high school reader to work their way towards understanding? Consider the balance between abstract definition and concrete example you have in this entry.
Social linguist James Paul Gee argues that any meaningful definition of literacy should be written in terms of Discourse. “Literacy,” he writes, is “the mastery of or fluent control over a secondary Discourse” (9). What he means by this is that to be literate means going beyond our ability to acquire the ability to read and write. Being literate means being able to smoothly and convincingly (“fluently”) perform the “saying (writing)-doing-being-valuing-believing combinations” (6) necessary to be recognized as taking on a “particular role that others will recognize” (7).
While this abstract defintion may seem difficult, the idea of Discourse isn’t really all that complex. In this paragraph, I’m going to show each of the elements of a Discourse combination in a concrete example. A person can be said to be fluent in the Coach Discourse, when he SAYS things like “there’s no I in team” or “Win the practice to win the game.” But simply saying those things is not enough. A coach must also be able to DO coach-stuff, like design effective practices, motivate players, and negotiate with parents. “Real coaches” – in contrast to moms and dads who coach have to BE coaches in an essential way. To be a hockey coach, for example, I had to go through rigorous training by USA Hockey, including learning how to do things like assess players for concussion, or having certain knowledge, like the developmental phases young athletes go through. I was trained to BELIEVE and VALUE certain things as well, such as the idea that athletic training was an integral part of broader human development, and that small-area games were an effective way to teach hockey skills, concepts, and habits. After several courses and in-person seminars I was certified as a USA Hockey coach, and my status with respect to the youth hockey leagues I was affiliated with changed, empowering me to take the ice as a real coach and be recognized by the organization, parents, and players as such. I was rewarded for my efforts, and visibly initiated into the Hockey Coach Discourse community, when I was presented with a coach’s version of the team hockey jacket.
In Gee’s terms, I had been “enculturated” or “apprenticed” into the Secondary Discourse of USA Hockey Coach through these activities and experiences (7). Secondary Discourses are those which we get by interacting with people and organizations outside the home (8). Unlike Primary Discourses, which we acquire simply by being born into an intimate family group, Secondary Discourses have to be learned through work. By working alongside more experienced coaches, and participating in coach training, I had been allowed to practice being a coach in “supported interactions with people who had already mastered the Discourse,” in this case, the head coaches I first worked under, and the professional hockey coaches running the training experiences (7).
Gee writes that acquisition of new Secondary Discourses can sometimes interact in complex ways with Primary Discourse or another Secondary Discourse (7). As a master of the Teacher Discourse, some of the beliefs, values, and practices I acquired becoming a fluent member of the Hockey Coach Discourse were in “tension” or “conflict” (8). For example, my belief that the best learning comes from a creative teacher adapting best practices to local circumstances, was tested by my local associations’ belief that players were best served by simply following USA Hockey practice plans without adaptation. This requirement made me angry enough to confront board members and to assert my knowledge and authority as a teacher, which as you may suspect, caused significant tension in the group. In order to remain part of the group and to maintain my integrity as a teacher, I had to compromise and accept that at least some of each of my practices would be drawn from the pre-designed practice plans of USA Hockey.
In John’s perspective high school is a new and fun experience. There is a lot to learn and more to learn than just academics. John will be experiencing a new discourse without knowing it. He will experience a dominant, primary, and secondary discourses. His dominant discourse coming from his experiences at home that made him who he is. Examples and ways of going about different tasks and actions that he could have picked up from his father. His primary discourse are from things that could have influenced him to act and dress the way he does. A secondary discourse is his social influences that give him a certain lingo or way of talking. His idiosyncrasies that everyone else can see as he walks down the hall way and how he talks to his peers.