On Being a Graduate Teaching Assistant

As a graduate teaching assistant, your contributions to the undergraduate teaching mission of the University are important. In this role, you'll need to balance the demands of teaching with the pursuit of your own studies and career goals. Being a TA involves professional responsibility to students, colleagues, your department, and the University. Becoming a professional requires that you develop skill at discharging professional responsibilities with integrity and tact.

Many new TAs have recently been undergraduates, and all TAs are still students. Yet the TA has an asymmetrical relationship with his or her own students. A TA holds the power in the relationship. With greater power comes greater responsibility. If a problem occurs between a TA and a student, the TA most likely has the greater ethical responsibility. Even when a student initiates an issue (cheating, abusive behavior, etc.) the TA, as a professional, is in some way responsible to the student. The TA must exercise professional restraint and not follow personal preferences or reactions. At first, this may require that a TA very consciously separate his or her "private" self from his/her "professional" self.

These specific behaviors will demonstrate that you are serious about your desire to develop professionalism.

Learn and take seriously the policies regarding your TA role
Learn to enforce policies fairly. This demands that you be firm and uphold standards. It may involve making decisions that disappoint others.
Be a reliable worker. If a student, colleague, or teaching team depends on you to do something, get it done well and on time.
Know the context and limitations within which you work. If you are not authorized to change rules or make decisions, don't act unilaterally. Confer with your faculty supervisors or department chair to determine what you may or may not do.
Respect the dignity of your students. Put aside personal biases.
Be cautious and discreet about the use of information. Respect privacy. Know the limits of your authority.
Maintain proper boundaries between professional and personal relationships. Avoid personal (intimate) relationships with students and your professors.

Relationships with Your Students

Some general guidelines for protecting yourself and the students you teach:

Don't ask students to do favors of any kind for you. This will help to avoid misunderstandings concerning the singling out of students for what might appear to be preferential treatment.
Schedule meetings with students during office hours or by appointment. For informal meetings with individual students or student groups, meet in public places such as the Union or the Adele Hall Learning Commons. It's important students not misunderstand the reason behind informal get-togethers and read inappropriate meanings into your invitations.
Attempt to resolve disputes or disagreements with students in the presence of other graduate teaching assistants or your TA supervisor. This action may prevent a disgruntled student from making false accusations out of anger over academic matters.

In all cases, the University considers sexual relations between a TA and one of his/her students as inappropriate behavior. Dating students may be construed as sexual harassment. Become familiar with the University's sexual harassment policy.

Additional information for Graduate Teaching Assistants can be found in the Office of Graduate Studies Services and Resources.