What's in a Name?

As my fourth semester of teaching freshman writing at the college level draws to a close, I am faced with a conundrum that I had already written off in previous semesters: as a 25-year-old instructor teaching (usually) 18 year old freshman, how should my students address me?

I first started teaching in Texas while working on my Master’s degree. I decided early on that asking students to address me by my last name was the best approach. This was pretty much the consensus amongst my cohort of Graduate student teachers, as most instructors I knew went by their last names (at least, all the other women in the program did). I even discussed the topic with a few of my faculty advisors, who agreed that having students address me by my last name was my best course.

Mainly, I made this choice initially because of my age. When I started teaching, I was only 5 years older than the majority of my students. This formality fortified my authority and kept the distance between me, the young instructor, and them, the college freshmen. I still think this was the best choice at that time. This choice was also informed by my own undergraduate experience. When my professors asked me to address them by their first names, I was always somewhat uncomfortable with the informality because it did not align with my perception of “college professor.” That’s just not how I imagined this power structure to work.

Another factor in my decision had to do with an experience from my Sophomore Spanish class that highlighted the tricky gender dynamics at play. I still vividly remember one of my male peers repeatedly referring to the female, tenured professor who taught the class as Ms. He did this, seemingly unconsciously, every single class meeting, even though she corrected him and asked him to call her Dr. each time. I am almost certain that he would not have displayed this consistent refusal to remember his professor’s degree had he been addressing a male faculty member. Remembering this, it seems really important to me that my students address me by my last name, so that I command the same respect as male adjunct faculty.

When I got to my current institution, I continue to introduce myself with my last name, but it does not seem as clear cut to me as it used to. I am beginning to see some advantages to having students on a more familiar basis. I think this is partially due to the fact that several educators here that I highly respect have their students call them by their first names. I like this approach because it further troubles a relationship that I am already trying to disrupt as an educator: I the teacher have the correct answer, and the students are merely receptacles for my knowledge. This is not the way that I teach; I strive for a collaborative and interactive approach in the classroom. So if we are all calling each other by our first names, that further makes us participants in the same learning community, just at different stages in the process.

Last Fall, a male student began an email to me with “Hi Christine.” I had an immediate visceral reaction of irritation, and wrote the student back to tell them not to address their instructors by their first names. I responded so quickly and directly largely because I would never think of addressing my teacher by their first name without them asking me to do so. I think it also had to do with the fact that I felt this entire class had been somewhat disrespectful throughout the semester.

This Spring semester, my adherence to my title has broken down somewhat. One of my students -- who is much older than me and who I recently learned has college aged children – has been calling me “Ms. Z,” and other students have followed suit. This has not been bothering me. Additionally, a female student recently started calling me Christine in her emails. In contrast to my earlier experience, I find that I am not against this. The main difference for me is that I am very comfortable with the dynamic in my current classroom and that I have established authority with these students at this point in the semester. Also (justly or unjustly) this language coming from a female student does not have the same connotations as it does coming from a male student.

What I do know is that the same dynamic that has one student call me Christine, is probably the same dynamic that allows students to come to my office hours when they have concerns about their papers, or to voice dissenting opinions from mine during class discussions. It has another student seek me out for advice on their difficult roommate situation, because they “like and respect me as a person.” Or another student pick me as their guest for their sorority’s teacher appreciation banquet. If this level of engagement both in and out of the classroom is the outcome, then maybe the cost is having a student call me Christine once in a while.

On some level, having students call me Christine fits better with my teaching style. On the other hand, I wonder if the students calling me by my first name would have started addressing their male professors this way without an invitation. Is this just a perpetuation of the dude in my Spanish class, where students intrinsically assume a lower level of respect for their female teachers? I don’t know. But I'm sure as I continue in academia, I'll find out.