Disclaimer: Power dynamics in an academic setting impact different people in different ways. Though I attempt to approach this topic from a place of empathy, at the end of the day I am still Dr. White Male and as such I also approach it from a position of privilege. I’ve done my best to take the experiences of my peers into account in the writing of this article, but my own experiences have, naturally, impacted the way I conceive of this issue.

One of the trickiest parts about being a new graduate instructor is navigating the power dynamic between yourself and your students. The first class that I ever taught had juniors and seniors in it. All that separated me and my students was the Bachelor’s Degree I’d received two months prior, and some of them were 9 months away from having one of their own. And I was painfully aware of this.

These people are essentially the same age as me – if we had interacted out in public last week it would have been as peers, but now I’m supposed to be an authority figure?? I’m going to give them grades, in college classes?? How in the world does that make sense??

At the end of the day, navigating this dynamic is not super easy, and you’re probably not going to get it perfect on the first try. In my experience, that first semester or two of being a new instructor usually goes one of two ways:

1) You acknowledge the essential arbitrariness of your position of authority – after all, these people could just as easily have wound up in a position of authority over you, if things had gone slightly differently, or you could have been in a situation with no power inequality at all, as peers. With this in mind, you decide that you’re going to err on the side of ‘casual.’  Unfortunately, ‘err on the side of casual’ can very quickly descend into ‘there are now no rules.’ And when that’s what the mood of the room becomes, your students will start asking you to make exceptions for them, since you behave essentially as friends, and you can very easily feel compelled to start making those exceptions:

15 minutes late? Missed the quiz? You feel like you deserved a better grade on the short answer question? You promise you turned in that assignment even though there’s no record of it anywhere? No big deal, I’ll fix it for you. Enjoy your A.

The power in the classroom ends up shifting to the students’ control, because they recognize that they can get you to do anything. To my fellow neurodivergent folks and people-pleasers, this is probably you. Sorry for calling you out like this.

2) You acknowledge the essential arbitrariness of your position of authority – after all, these people could just as easily have wound up in a position of authority over you, if things had gone slightly differently, or you could have been in a situation with no power inequality at all, as peers. With this in mind, you decide that you must firmly enforce the power dynamic and rule with an iron fist – students must address you by some sort of title; rules are enforced with zero exceptions ever; you never admit fault ever (I’ve discussed the problems with this attitude elsewhere); rebellions against your authority must be swiftly put down. You are Davros, and the classroom is your Skaro!!

My hyperbole aside (as well as the fact that imagining behaving this way causes me physical discomfort), if you have to ‘miss’ in one direction, this is probably the better one, since it preserves the integrity of the classroom dynamic. The big issue here, of course, is that there’s no quicker way to alienate the room than treating your students as if you’re better than them (because you’re not. Nobody is inherently better than anybody else).

Naturally, we want to find a position between these two extremes, the pedagogical Middle Way. The ideal situation we’re looking for, in my opinion, is one in which:

• The power dynamic is clear – you are the authority figure in the room;
• Grades are distributed fairly and objectively, unaffected by personal feelings, and your students recognize this;
• Your students feel positively, or at least neutrally, about the power dynamic (after all, supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses);
• Your students feel positively, or at least neutrally, about you (it’s much easier to learn and ask for help from someone we’re positively inclined toward)

The tone I advise people to shoot for in navigating these murky waters is: friendly, but not friends. The best way to illustrate this distinction is probably just a (short and very non-comprehensive) list of dos and don’ts:

Do:

• Feel free to maintain a light tone, especially before and after class. Developing class-wide inside jokes, asking how everyone’s weekend went, speaking in a more casual register are all great ways to keep things light without compromising your authority.
• Behave like a regular human being. Be excited about the things you’re excited about! Share stories from when you were in your first ever Latin class! Make dorky Doctor Who jokes! At the end of the day we are here to help our students, and they’re more likely to ask the Star Wars nerd for help than they are the personality-less robot that provides them with information and nothing else.
• Establish boundaries for the classroom, be open about them, and maintain them. If a student does something inappropriate, let them know.

Don’t:

• Maintain too light of a tone. Shoot for treating your students, at most, like you treat your favorite employee at your regular coffee shop, rather than, say, your D&D group or your trivia team. Again – friendly, not friends.
• Get too personal. Discussing romantic relationships, certain sorts of weekend activities, physical or psychological issues, etc. should remain off-limits.
• Give students your phone number, add them on social media, friend them on Discord, give them your personal email, etc. This is a pretty hard and fast one. Your students should be able to contact you only through official means, i.e., on campus or via your work email.
• Treat some students more casually than others. If you’re going to joke with one student, don’t blow another one off when they try to joke with you in the same way.

This list of behaviors is just as much for your safety as your students’. Once you start treating your students like they’re your friends, it won’t be long before they just are your friends. And once you’ve fallen into that hole, it is incredibly difficult to climb back out – you don’t want to give your friend a D on their Latin exam. We want to be kind, we want to be friendly, but as long as we exist in this power imbalance, being friends is not an option.

At the end of the day, though, there is a degree to which you should trust your judgment. You might be uncomfortable with some of the things I’ve said are okay, and you might be sure that some of the things I’ve said not to do will not be a problem for you (though I’d caution against this latter feeling. If you’re reading this you’ve probably never been in this position before so the criteria with which you’re making that judgment probably aren’t super well-developed). I’d ask that you treat this list, at a minimum, as your starting point.

I’ll close with one final comment: you’re in the position you’re in for a reason. Someone, somewhere, decided that you were qualified to do this important job, and if you don’t trust your own judgment, then trust theirs. You’re going to do great.

-David Welch