Students calling you by first name

[Chemystery]

Are you required to tell the students your first name?  Could you just introduce yourself and list your name as "Dr. Lastname" on the syllabus?

[nonsensical]

When I introduce myself on the first day of class, I say that I'm the professor for the course and that students can call me Dr. X or Professor X. I also sign my e-mails with one of those two titles. Most students then use one of those titles to refer to me, but if they try to call me Ms. X or Mrs. X or my first name or something else, I remind them that my name is Dr. X  or Professor X. In e-mails, the first time they call me by a version of my name that isn't appropriate for them to use, I just sign as Dr. X or Professor X. That usually fixes things; if it doesn't, I'll say explicitly in the next e-mail that my name is Dr. X / Professor X.

I think it's fine for you to call students by their first name and have them call you using your title, the same way it's fine for you to grade their work when they aren't grading your work. There's a role difference between you and your students and it's okay for the way you refer to each other to reflect that.

[Langue_doc]

Are you required to tell the students your first name?  Could you just introduce yourself and list your name as "Dr. Lastname" on the syllabus?

Your full name is listed on the course schedule, as well as on the LMS even pre-pandemic.

My name on my syllabi is Professor Langue Doc. I introduce myself as Professor Doc on the first day of class. When responding to student emails, I sign off as Professor Doc.

Occasionally I've had students, usually male immigrant students, address me as "Miss". They are usually quite respectful while doing so, in tone and demeanor, even when disagreeing with me as in "But miss, you said...", or "Miss, I thought...", so I don't correct them. Presumably, this is how they are used to addressing their teachers in their home countries. These are fresh peeps, so as long as they aren't disruptive, I focus on their assignments and not on how they address me.

When I've taught graduate students in other institutions, in other states, I've had them address me by my first name. Grad students are future colleagues, so I have no issues with grad students using my first name. TAs, needless to say, use my first name.

[Sun_Worshiper]

I usually sign more formal emails to students with "Prof. Sun_Worshiper" or less formal ones with initials. Personally I don't care if students call me by my first name, but I've come to worry that encouraging them to do so would undermine my colleagues who do care.

[ergative]

[
Occasionally I've had students, usually male immigrant students, address me as "Miss". They are usually quite respectful while doing so, in tone and demeanor, even when disagreeing with me as in "But miss, you said...", or "Miss, I thought...", so I don't correct them. Presumably, this is how they are used to addressing their teachers in their home countries. These are fresh peeps, so as long as they aren't disruptive, I focus on their assignments and not on how they address me.

I had one of those last semester. He turned out to be really bright and would come to (virtual) office hours with great ideas, and as the semester progressed he started inconsistently swapping between 'Miss' and 'Dr', so I think he was fighting between what he had learned the standard was, but also with competition from his earlier training. He was, at youngest, in his third year, though, so it took him a while to get there.

[dismalist]

At the first class meeting I [male] would slime in before the end of class "Oh, by the way, I like to be called LAST NAME. But you can call me anything you want, as long as you keep it clean." No mention of titles or such.

I didn't like being called by my first name, which some did in spite of my expressed wish, but I never said or did anything about it, and never held it against anyone. Anything else would have been too much like tilting at windmills.

[fishbrains]

[
Occasionally I've had students, usually male immigrant students, address me as "Miss". They are usually quite respectful while doing so, in tone and demeanor, even when disagreeing with me as in "But miss, you said...", or "Miss, I thought...", so I don't correct them. Presumably, this is how they are used to addressing their teachers in their home countries. These are fresh peeps, so as long as they aren't disruptive, I focus on their assignments and not on how they address me.

I had one of those last semester. He turned out to be really bright and would come to (virtual) office hours with great ideas, and as the semester progressed he started inconsistently swapping between 'Miss' and 'Dr', so I think he was fighting between what he had learned the standard was, but also with competition from his earlier training. He was, at youngest, in his third year, though, so it took him a while to get there.

Hmmm . . . two of the three high schools I have taught dual enrollment in delineated between "Mrs." and "Miss" on the name-signs of the rooms of their female teachers. I'm not exactly in a progressive part of the world here.

[Langue_doc]

[
Occasionally I've had students, usually male immigrant students, address me as "Miss". They are usually quite respectful while doing so, in tone and demeanor, even when disagreeing with me as in "But miss, you said...", or "Miss, I thought...", so I don't correct them. Presumably, this is how they are used to addressing their teachers in their home countries. These are fresh peeps, so as long as they aren't disruptive, I focus on their assignments and not on how they address me.

I had one of those last semester. He turned out to be really bright and would come to (virtual) office hours with great ideas, and as the semester progressed he started inconsistently swapping between 'Miss' and 'Dr', so I think he was fighting between what he had learned the standard was, but also with competition from his earlier training. He was, at youngest, in his third year, though, so it took him a while to get there.

Hmmm . . . two of the three high schools I have taught dual enrollment in delineated between "Mrs." and "Miss" on the name-signs of the rooms of their female teachers. I'm not exactly in a progressive part of the world here.

My students use "Miss" as a term of address analogous to the use of "Professor", as in "hi Professor, how are you?" or "hi Miss, how are you?". "Mrs", on the other hand, is a title, so I've never encountered a student addressing me as "Mrs". Students who address me as "Miss" very often are ESL or first-generation immigrant students who are learning not only the language but also the norms used in communication. As with ergative's student, these students subsequently learn to use either "professor" or "Dr." and often go through a transition period where they tend to forget the newly acquired word or habit. This is similar to their learning English as very often students regress during their learning but eventually manage to learn correct grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure.

[Charlotte]

I appreciate the various perspectives! I wonder if I should introduce myself in the first class as "Professor Lastname or Dr. Lastname" and if someone calls me by my first name gently remind them that I'm Professor or Dr.

I do purposely dress very professionally.

Perhaps I do need to get over my hesitation about letting them use my first name. It may be insecurity on my part since it is my first year teaching and I already lack confidence. Being called something different than my colleagues does bother me a little but I do need to grow a thicker skin and gain some confidence regardless of what students call me.

I'm hoping that will come with time!

[ergative]

I appreciate the various perspectives! I wonder if I should introduce myself in the first class as "Professor Lastname or Dr. Lastname" and if someone calls me by my first name gently remind them that I'm Professor or Dr.

I do purposely dress very professionally.

Perhaps I do need to get over my hesitation about letting them use my first name. It may be insecurity on my part since it is my first year teaching and I already lack confidence. Being called something different than my colleagues does bother me a little but I do need to grow a thicker skin and gain some confidence regardless of what students call me.

I'm hoping that will come with time!

Don't let them treat you differently. Growing a thicker skin in this case means learning to accept internalized sexism from your students. That doesn't affect only you; it also affects everyone else they interact with, because they'll continue acting with unthinking sexism if they're not challenged. Develop your confidence by telling them what to call you and insisting on it.

Save your skin-thickening powers for things like paper and grant rejections.

[Caracal]

I appreciate the various perspectives! I wonder if I should introduce myself in the first class as "Professor Lastname or Dr. Lastname" and if someone calls me by my first name gently remind them that I'm Professor or Dr.

I do purposely dress very professionally.

Perhaps I do need to get over my hesitation about letting them use my first name. It may be insecurity on my part since it is my first year teaching and I already lack confidence. Being called something different than my colleagues does bother me a little but I do need to grow a thicker skin and gain some confidence regardless of what students call me.

I'm hoping that will come with time!

It does. There's a very nice feedback loop where you start seeming like you know what you're doing and students start acting like you do. This mostly works even when you actually don't know what you're doing...

[Puget]

I think it really comes down to local culture and your own preferences-- if most faculty there are addressed by title and you prefer it, introduce yourself that way and correct them gently when they get it wrong. If you do come to feel comfortable using your first name, that's fine too.

As to gaining confidence, yes it will come with time. In the meantime, fake it till you make it.

[bio-nonymous]

I honestly wish some students would call me by my first name. The medical professional students I teach are all trained to say Dr. So and So (and in fact must do so according to program rules)--but they can't even break the habit when working in the lab; same thing with the undergrad researchers who do projects with me. I tell students in my lab to call me FIRSTNAME, because we are all colleagues working together; but, to no avail. That being said, I can see how it could be problematic if some professors were called Dr. Blank and others FIRSTNAME, particularly if it fell into gender/age group discrimination.

[Caracal]

I honestly wish some students would call me by my first name. The medical professional students I teach are all trained to say Dr. So and So (and in fact must do so according to program rules)--but they can't even break the habit when working in the lab; same thing with the undergrad researchers who do projects with me. I tell students in my lab to call me FIRSTNAME, because we are all colleagues working together; but, to no avail. That being said, I can see how it could be problematic if some professors were called Dr. Blank and others FIRSTNAME, particularly if it fell into gender/age group discrimination.

It can be hard to break if it is really ingrained. I went to grad school with someone who four years in often would still call his advisor Dr. and then stop himself and call him by his first name. It was easier for me because it was really only something I had done in college.

[cathwen]

I always introduced myself on the first day as Dr. Lastname.  Students would address me as Dr. Lastname, Professor Lastname, or simply Professor—except in language classes, where I was simply Madame.