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Hear hear
A new philosophy graduate student writes:
In a PhD program, how common is it for grad students to TA for other, current grad students? It immediately strikes me as awkward, but I am unfamiliar with the common practice. If you have any insight into this, or would care to ask your readers, it would be greatly appreciated.
Readers?
The first time I TA'd was for Pete Graham, when we were both grad students at NYU. He was a few years my senior in the program. There was nothing awkward about it at all (at least, not that I was aware of). In fact it was a great introduction to teaching. Thanks Pete for a great course!
I don't think it's particularly common, but it does happen. Especially when someone's away and a big course goes up for grabs. I've done it (as the TA, not the instructor) once for a summer course, and will be doing it once more. IMO, it can be a little awkward, but it's not that bad so long as you both stand firmly by the rules of the contract and as long as you complete your portion of the work in a timely (and competent) manner. Set your ground rules early, and firmly. Don't work beyond the bounds of your contract, don't ask for special favours on the basis of friendship, and don't be afraid to check things with the instructor if/when you're uncertain. I think this last is especially important, since the instructor is less experienced, and it's those small things that can throw her for a loop or make her feel undermined.
As a new student, it's probably easier to leave your friendship at the door (since you probably don't have one yet), so the problems attendant to that kind of stuff are less pressing. I would stress my last point above, however: since the instructor is still a graduate student, it's fairly easy to inadvertently undermine her. Pay careful attention to how you speak of (and refer to) her and of the course to your students, and check with her when you're uncertain about stuff (e.g. if you're uncertain whether to grant extensions, how to grade a problem/question/paper, if you need to miss a session and organize a make-up session, etc.).
At Berkeley, grad students serve as GSIs (TAs) for each other during the summer sessions, when grad students have the opportunity to serve as the primary instructor for courses. I'm not sure what's supposed to be so awkward about that, in general. There's of course the possibility that you get paired with an instructor with whom you don't get along, but that could happen when TAing for faculty too. My sense at Berkeley was that grad students often really enjoyed TAing for each other: it's a great opportunity to collaborate with your peers.
It was commonplace at UCSB in the 90s. You might have a grad student as your TA one semester and then be that student's TA the next semester.
This was not permitted in my grad program, nor was the program even set up such that it was likely to happen. Grad students didn't TA for grad courses, and for the one undergrad course that some grad students took (senior level Symbolic Logic), the instructor of record graded any work done by (the few) grad students in the class.
It happens at Florida State, especially during the summer when grad students teach a number of courses. It's not awkward, at least not in my experience. I have a fellow grad student TA right now, and things are hunky-dory. Sometimes students are given a choice, and some TA, and some teach.
Indeed, John Collins (from above) was a grad student and the first person for whom I TA'd. I actually preferred TA'ing for grad students just because it was more fun.
I can't comment on how common it is outside of my own department, but I can say that I am currently TAing for another graduate student, and many others in my cohort have done so as well. In my experience, this only happens when the teaching graduate student is ABD (or, in some cases, has already defended but has yet to take his/her position that begins the following academic year). Provided that the teaching graduate student is teaching something s/he researches or is competent to teach, I see no reason to feel particularly awkward about it. Indeed, I could see it being even better than the alternative, since the teaching graduate student may be more likely to empathize with the challenges that his/her TA might face, for example, in balancing the TA assignment and his/her own coursework/projects.
It happens at Pitt to this day. But it is only allowed for very senior graduate student at the end of the program. I was on both ends of it, and I thought it was a blast. I found it unproblematic.
It seems like there may be a misunderstanding about the question. Is the question: (a) how common is it for a grad student to serve as a TA for a course taught by another grad student, or (b) how common is it for a grad student to serve as a TA for a course which another grad student is enrolled in?
BL COMMENT: I had assumed it was (a), though people are welcome to address (b) as well, and perhaps my correspondent will weigh in with a clarification.
In the past year, this has happened twice in our department. (Both fall and spring last year and also this fall) I can't speak to how often it's happened at previous times because it is only my third year in the program. Both times, the grad student who was instructor of record was/is ABD and the TAs were/are first and second year students in the program. As far as I know, this has only been done because of staffing needs in the department—a number of faculty have been on leave in the past year.
Common at UCLA in the first part of the 90s, when I was there. I was on both ends of the arrangement and it was fine.
I can't speak to how common it is in general, but it certainly happened when professor Leiter and I were both at UT (he as a professor and me as an undergraduate). I had a logic class taught by a late grad (who later taught at my grad institution) with an early-in-the-program grad student as TA. It made sense to me at the time, given the nature of the course.
The University of Toronto allows (a), or at least did as of a few years ago. When I was ABD there, I taught a class with two other (non-ABD) grad students as my TAs. Like other commenters, I didn't find it awkward at all. Actually, it was nice to be able to consult my TAs as relative peers on substantive teaching matters.
It was common at my grad program, at SUNY Albany, where grad students are both TAs and adjunct instructors. Nothing awkward about it (unless the instructor wants it to be, I guess).
This was common at UW-Madison when I was there (early 00's), and presumably still is; senior grad students, usually ones who were dissertating, would apply for some of the lectureships that came up every semester, and they were usually for intro courses which had TAs which, naturally, were younger grad students.
I never found it awkward to TA for another grad student. It was often more pleasant since the instructor was also a friend and a peer.
This has also been common in recent years at the University of Minnesota. When I was ABD there, I taught courses as a "graduate instructor" and had other grad students assigned as TA's for me. Sometimes they were just graders, but sometimes they were full TA's with discussion sections. The department only let advanced grad students with a decent amount of teaching experience do this, so it generally wasn't awkward. There are some nice aspects to it, like it felt a bit more like a joint effort (with a clear leader, though) than the master-servent relationship that working for a professor can sometimes be.
I always felt that the grad students who TA'd for their peers were missing out, though. For me, my choices of who to TA for were usually driven by which professors I wanted to get to know better. Maybe they're a potential committee member, or letter writer, or maybe there's just not a ton of other contact between professors and grad students.
Also, as for Alex's interpretation (b), we also had a situation in Minnesota where a grad student TA's a course that other grad students take. There was a full-year logic sequence that all grad students took, and there was always a TA for that. I had that job several times, and it was a bit awkward at first, but the logic course was hard and the TA usually knew the material at least well-enough to be helpful, so the awkwardness dissolved pretty quickly.
As Ben L. notes, it happens at Pitt. I do recall at least one case in which two more senior female graduate students were assigned to TA for a male graduate student who had not been in the program for as many years, which I thought odd, at least, especially as either of the assigned TAs could easily have taught the course. In my own experience, I recall TA'ing for another grad student who was in my own cohort. He was an expert in the subject matter and I definitely was not. I did not find that strange at all and rather enjoyed it.
Going with interpretation B for a moment, I was the TA for a 400/800 level logic class in which some grad students were enrolled. I knew which students were struggling with problem sets or exams, and this may have been somewhat uncomfortable for them due to the general expectation that grad students should do well in the course. Perhaps they were less likely to seek out help from me than were the undergrads enrolled. However, the grading demanded no subjective judgments, and by contrast, I would not have wanted to TA for a course where I was asked to grade the writing of fellow grad students.
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