I tend to avoid referring to myself as a "graduate student" in the classes I teach. It's not out of pretentiousness, though.

See, I've never found a good way to say "grad student" without implying "JUST a grad student". And that's not how I want to present myself to my class...it sounds like an apology. Fact is, I have been appointed as the person who is in charge of their class, I will be setting the assignments, creating the syllabus, giving the lectures and the exams, and assigning the grades. They don't get a tuition discount because they aren't being taught by faculty. So, from the students' perspective, they have every reason to expected just as much from me as they would from someone who is a tenured full professor. Lowering those expectations by calling attention to the fact that I'm a grad student is a mistake, and it sets the wrong tone. Fact is, I expect just as much out of myself AND THEM as I would if I was full faculty.

If there is any situation where it makes a practical difference to a student that I am still working on my dissertation, I clarify the situation immediately. For instance, I am often approached by students who'd like to work with me in my "my" lab, but I need to let them know that the lab is run by my advisor since I am a grad student. Also, a student who wants a letter of rec from me should know what they're getting. But for the average student, it doesn't (and shouldn't) make any difference to them whether I am an "associate professor" or "teaching associate".

Reading through posts on this subject one thing strikes me - do people know how many different ranks of professor there are?

Posters are acting like professor is some big fancy title but to me it is like manager. A manager of McDonalds is a manager. So is one of the VPs of a large corporation. Just because somebody says 'professor' doesn't mean that somebody is a big wig. Could be that they are a first year associate at a small community college.

Nah, I don't think the fine distinctions will make a lot of difference to students (but they do know what a grad student is!) Mostly I am careful so as not to disrespect the actual faculty. There is a lot of hard work between me and a tenure-track job...completing and defending my dissertation, going on the job search, interviewing, and being chosen for the job. Plus, I don't teach at a small community college, bit a major research institution, so telling someone that I landed a job HERE is especially far from the truth.

Also a grad student, and with my family and friends who are non-scientists, I also refer to myself as a teaching assistant or instructor. Because that way they'll ask me interesting questions about what it's like to deal with students and if I enjoy teaching and the like. It's a required part of my program some quarters (all depends on the NIH funding!) and while it's not the part of the program that captivates me the most, it's much easier to talk about. If I lead off by explaining that I'm a grad student doing a research project, then they'll ask about what I do and I'll spend the next 10 minutes trying to explain things in layman's terms and their eyes still glaze over. It's part of being an interesting conversationalist, being able to talk about yourself in ways that are actually interesting to other people. (Which of course is a corollary to being interested in other people and being able to draw them out with questions about themselves.)

as a TA in a large university, our dean TOLD us to make the students call us professor. It was his intent that we keep em scared as possible.

SusanM:

Could be that they are a first year associate at a small community college.

Or an Italian soccer coach.

Why not "Master"?

Um... no-one is saying you SHOULD describe yourself as a "grad student" to the students you teach. That's not at all what the LW is saying.

I once performed the Heimlich maneuvre on a choking woman. I don't go around town announcing myself as "hero". Context is everything.

I completed my first masters degree two years ago. One year ago I started grad school again for my second.

Now, I go part-time and work full time, so it might be different for me. My corporate coworkers are impressed I'm motivated to get ahead, while my schoolmates are impressed I have a job, so it works for me! I don't have to put up with a lot of school politics because I pay my own tuition (some of it is reimbursed through work.)

Actually, I do kind of dream of teaching some day-- not as a job though.

Isonomist:

as a TA in a large university, our dean TOLD us to make the students call us professor. It was his intent that we keep em scared as possible.

That is highly unusual and would make the professors at most universities pissed. Where I work, if a grad student were passing himself off as a professor, he would be gently pulled aside by the graduate advisor and told to stop before he convinced his own professors that he is completely clueless about the profession.

Get it right.

All I know is that's how I was trained. This school (private, prestigious) uses mostly adjuncts in undergrad, charges a freakin fortune for tuition, and builds grade inflation into the teacher training process. Maybe public institutions are different.

It's possible they want their undergrads to think TAs are professors so that they don't complain about high tuition and no PhD at the front of the room. I've been affiliated in some way with 5 universities, public and private, where this would not be acceptable, but my current university is a huge research 1 and nobody here could deny the heavy reliance on underpaid adjunct and grad labor.

talking about their own research and publication history.

Isonomist:

Maybe public institutions are different.

Not some of them, at least. My sophomore year, all the instructors were TA's, total incompetents (quit going to class, and watch your grades go up!), or non-native English speakers whom no one could understand.