Student Introductions and Preferred Pronouns


 It’s the first week of teaching at Leeds and at Cambridge. Everywhere is buzzing with lost students and excitment. I’m thinking a lot about how we introduce ourselves. Clearly we cant ask for introductions in lectures, but I do for small groups. But how best to do this? 

 
1. Recent Norm 
 In small group teaching, during the very first session, I used to ask students to go around the circle and introduce themselves, answering three questions. The first two questions were always name and preferred pronoun. The last question changes depending on context, size of class, type of class etc. Thought is given to how much time we have! 

Some last questions include: 
Q: In three words or less, how do you feel about this module?
Q: Why did you take this module?
Q: What’s your favourite thing about philosophy?
Q: What’s your least favourite thing about philosophy?
Q: What are you most/least excited about when you think about this module? 
Q: In one sentence, why did you choose to study philosophy?


2. Some general teaching ambitions
So why have the question about pronouns? Heres some things I’d like for my small groups.

G1 To make sure everyone is referred to with the pronoun they prefer
G2 To make sure everyone is referred to with the name they prefer.
G3 To avoid deadnaming and misgendering, by me and students, where at all possible and especially in small group seminars
G4 To avoid trans or non conforming students feeling singled out
G5 To avoid the emotional labour of 1, 2, and 3 being trans students emotional labour

I thought I was meeting these goals as best I could. I'd also done some research: the prounoun question is often recommended for small groups (for example: Berkeley's advice)
 


3.Thoughts  
I had assumed until recently that some published advice I’d read to ask for preferred pronouns is right. We should be asking all students in all small groups to introduce themselves at the start with their name and their pronoun(s). That way, we can make sure to only use everyones preferred pronouns. Recently I've been wondering if the published advice was wrong, and doesn't make the relevant students feel any better, and might make things worse.

I worry that G4 is in direct conflict with G1.Whilst it’s obviously best that students are never misgendered, I can’t ensure this without making some students feel "outed". I’m thinking here of students who are gender non conforming, or trans students, or students who are currently in transition. I don’t want them to feel that everyone is looking at them, or similar. 
 
Suppose that everyone goes around the circle, and all those who have straightforward gender identities declare that they use the obvious pronoun. Then the student who is queer has to say "she" or "they", and they feel that attention is being brought to their difference to the norm. Or they feel outed as trans. Or they feel on the spot. Or they just think "oh no!, not this again!, I wish I was talking about logic right now".

4. Updated Norm For Small Groups
So heres what I plan to do next time. Ask students to go around the circle and introduce themselves, answering two questions. The first question is "what would you like me to call you'? The second question is of the type "In three words or less, how do you feel about this module"? There wont be a question about pronouns. But I will model the use of "they" wherever I can. 

But Im still thinking hard.

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