"I Want to Remember My Passion for Animals": Incoming Veterinary Students and the Significance of Childhood Experiences

• In Event: Identity Development

Abstract

Veterinarians’ perspectives on animals are critical dimensions of how our larger society views its relationship with animals. Using the theoretical framework of significant life experiences, I examine twenty incoming veterinary students’ memories of childhood experiences with animals. I identify how what they remember (and forget) about their relationships with animals from their childhood are complicated by the cultural and social narratives they have absorbed both in schools and in the wider context. In conclusion, I suggest that there is a need for increased research about how significant life experiences shape veterinary professionals, and that studying childhood experience is an important extension of the research on socialization in the professions more broadly

Author

• Nadine E. Dolby, Purdue University