A Name to Fit the Academic (Pedagogical) Space
This great article by Dr. Liana Silva, really reinforced what I have been thinking about lately in terms of how being in different pedagogical spaces necessarily changes the way one relates to these spaces. One way that we relate to these spaces is through naming.
I teach at a college and I also teach at a university. I have written about these supposed divisions between college and university in Ontario many times on this blog. To recap my position, I firmly believe that reinforcing divisions between college and university (in the horrible and fallacy riddled colleges are the poor cousins of universities sort of way) actually undermines post-secondary education as a whole.
That being said there are these less than subtle divisions that do appear in the pedagogical space that as an academic I cannot easily erase or change. One is the way that my students address me.
At the college where I teach my students usually call me by my first name. Part of this has to do with my student demographic, in that I teach continuing education subjects and my students are often older than me. By getting my students to call by my first name I am hoping to ease any trepidation about going back to school that many of my students have, and frankly I think these students prefer the first name basis because it helps create the sense of community that they want from their education. Not all of my college students call me by my first name. Some call me "professor", most call me "miss", and others the more formal "ma'am". Since receiving my doctorate almost a year ago some call me Dr. because they see it on the syllabus but often they quickly revert back to first name, professor or miss. Because of this I sign my emails to these students with my first name only.
At the university where I teach my students call me "professor" or "doctor" nothing else. This is a formality that seems to be engrained in the university system and even if you try to disrupt it in some way, it seems forced. However, because of this at the beginning of the semester I faced a dilemma. How do I sign my emails to university students? Before I had my PhD I would sign them with my complete name but now I worried that Dr so and so, seemed a bit too pompous. So I resorted to the (cleaner?) easier initials. I know that there is a great PhD comic here about the semiotics of professor email signatures, but I hope that my students don't think my capitalized initials mean "ambivalence or mild displeasure". Sometimes I slip and sign my first name in an email to a university student, but in general I stick to the capitalized initials for I feel it gives the proper balance of formality but still echoes my pedagogical stance of being approachable and accessible to my students.
Like Dr. Silva, I have my mother who says things like “You should introduce yourself as Doctor ____! You worked hard for that Ph.D.!” and in some instances I agree. However, rare have been the instances where people call me Ms. instead of Dr. in a professional space-- and for that I am grateful and lucky.
There are so many nuances to this issue and I thank Dr. Silva for writing such an insightful post. I think this is a discussion that is well worth having since it does relate to how we teach and how we function within an academic environment.
I teach at a college and I also teach at a university. I have written about these supposed divisions between college and university in Ontario many times on this blog. To recap my position, I firmly believe that reinforcing divisions between college and university (in the horrible and fallacy riddled colleges are the poor cousins of universities sort of way) actually undermines post-secondary education as a whole.
That being said there are these less than subtle divisions that do appear in the pedagogical space that as an academic I cannot easily erase or change. One is the way that my students address me.
At the college where I teach my students usually call me by my first name. Part of this has to do with my student demographic, in that I teach continuing education subjects and my students are often older than me. By getting my students to call by my first name I am hoping to ease any trepidation about going back to school that many of my students have, and frankly I think these students prefer the first name basis because it helps create the sense of community that they want from their education. Not all of my college students call me by my first name. Some call me "professor", most call me "miss", and others the more formal "ma'am". Since receiving my doctorate almost a year ago some call me Dr. because they see it on the syllabus but often they quickly revert back to first name, professor or miss. Because of this I sign my emails to these students with my first name only.
At the university where I teach my students call me "professor" or "doctor" nothing else. This is a formality that seems to be engrained in the university system and even if you try to disrupt it in some way, it seems forced. However, because of this at the beginning of the semester I faced a dilemma. How do I sign my emails to university students? Before I had my PhD I would sign them with my complete name but now I worried that Dr so and so, seemed a bit too pompous. So I resorted to the (cleaner?) easier initials. I know that there is a great PhD comic here about the semiotics of professor email signatures, but I hope that my students don't think my capitalized initials mean "ambivalence or mild displeasure". Sometimes I slip and sign my first name in an email to a university student, but in general I stick to the capitalized initials for I feel it gives the proper balance of formality but still echoes my pedagogical stance of being approachable and accessible to my students.
Like Dr. Silva, I have my mother who says things like “You should introduce yourself as Doctor ____! You worked hard for that Ph.D.!” and in some instances I agree. However, rare have been the instances where people call me Ms. instead of Dr. in a professional space-- and for that I am grateful and lucky.
There are so many nuances to this issue and I thank Dr. Silva for writing such an insightful post. I think this is a discussion that is well worth having since it does relate to how we teach and how we function within an academic environment.
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