A Professor By Any Other Name - Part 2
I am truly amazed at the number of comments sparked by my previous post concerning what I prefer to be called when I teach my college classes. Clearly, many people are passionate about and committed to their positions on the subject. Thank you all for your feedback. I intend to use the comments as discussion when I teach the chapter in my class concerning the power of language. That chapter talk about labels, and sexist and racist language. But the most powerful aspect of language are not the words themselves - for meanings are in people, not in words which are mere symbols. The power of language lies is it's ability to shape thoughts and feelings - which can and certainly does lead to actions and behaviors.Names are critical. No doubt about that. We already know about perceptions that are formed of individuals just by hearing their name. I've had discussions with others in this blog and others about re-naming a child you adopt who happens to have an unfortunate name, one that does not set them up well for a life of success and positive perceptions, or one that is overtly Afrocentric. This is a topic for more lengthy blogs. Indeed, it is a topic volumes have already been written about by renowned scholars whose publications have far exceeded my own.
Imagine if you will that my first name was not "Tamara", but another less...oh..."professional" name. Imagine my name is Kandi. This is the name of one of my very best and long-term friends. She is petite, 5-foot nothing, size 6, and very blonde. She is also a brilliant writer and a talented scholar. She is a professor, and went up for early tenure and promotion - and got it. She is addressed as "Dr. W*****". As a graduate student, she was eager to promote what some might refer to as "feminist" teaching methods. (I will disagree there, and assert there are many ways to approach a feminist pedagogy - the name a professor wishes to be called might be considered a lesser technique.) She wanted to be called "Kandi". Her students loved her, but few took her seriously as the scholar she was. Now, an Associate Professor, her voice mail in her office says "You have reached Dr. W*****". The nature of the beast that is the academy presents a woefully unlevel playing field for many of its participants. That is a shame indeed. It is a shame that Kandi is taken less seriously because of her first name and her outrageously "cute/pretty" appearance. But I can attest to the fact that her teaching is top-notch, well founded in feminist theory and methodology, and that her students excel beyond imagination. In fact, "Dr. W's" wait list for enrollment is longer than most of her colleagues. No one bothers to question why she wishes to be called "Dr. Walker". No one argues that her teaching or her students have suffered by showing her this degree of respect.
I could choose to have my students call me "Tamara". I could choose to address my students as "Mr." and "Ms. So-and-so". I could abandon the term "Professor" as some suggest - either because it has "lost its panache", or because I do not yet have a PhD (I am ABD - all but dissertation). I could have students address me as "Mrs. So-and-so", but that is my mother-in-law, and it feels odd to me. Does what I am comfortable with come into play here at all? I find it interesting that people are far more concerned with how the student feels being forced to address me a certain way - as opposed to being concerned with my comfort level as teacher, facilitator, and evaluator. There seems to be little, if any, concern for how my comfort level with the boundaries in the classroom contribute to (or detract from) my own teaching effectiveness and ultimately the outcome for all of my students.
In short, each individual who enters the classroom has his or her preferred method of address. I cannot imagine that my student would have asked the same question of a 50-something, bespectacled white male in a tweed blazer with elbow patches. I believe she would have felt uncomfortable calling him by his first name. Remember the critical point I was trying to make in my last post on the topic. Her argument was based on my age. She argued that she should not have to address me the way I requested because I was close to her age. If her argument would have been based on something substantive (say, based on feminist pedagogy), I might have had a very different reaction. Then her secondary argument was weak as well - everyone's doing it. I teach in the field of human communication. If my students cannot formulate better arguments and lines of reasoning than that, I have truly failed, regardless of what they call me.
Maybe it's a matter or respect, and maybe it isn't. Maybe I'm not a "professor" - but my title, training, and experience sure says it. I'm an adjunct professor. I am not an instructor. I was an Assistant Professor from 1999 on. Therefore, I chose to be called "Professor". My colleagues with terminal degrees in their feilds are addressed as "Professor". Some PhDs and MDs choose to be addressed by their first name. This causes me no stress. I do not stay awake night wondering how I might persuade them to "go old school" and insist on being called "Dr." I want them to be comfortable. And I want students to learn that to successfully navigate their communicative world, they must be rhetorically sensitive enough to adapt, and adapt smoothly and quickly. They must learn how to cope with life circumstances, difficult personalities, more formal individuals, and less formal individuals. They must learn how to do this and not be so intrapersonally affected that they experience stress and discomfort. Perhaps this tiny blip on the radar screen of my class has been a more valuable lesson than I ever imagined.
posted by No Longer In Crisis @ 9/13/2005 10:32:00 AM
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