When teachers are happy, they will call you by your name – as in “I just saw Mr. Miller and he was so helpful!” or “Cameron wrote a wonderful letter of recommendation for my Master’s program.”

But look out when they’re not happy. “ADMIN was in my classroom today – so awkward.” “Why doesn’t ADMIN understand our needs?” “I don’t feel supported by ADMIN.”

I am a Principal and have a team of three administrators who work with me. You might call them Assistant Principals or Vice Principals depending on where you work. We are all administrators, but – for the life of me – none of us answer to the name “ADMIN”. So what exactly is happening here?

Looking for an explanation, I stumbled upon Kendra Cherry’s article “How Othering Contributes to Discrimination and Prejudice” on verywellmind.com.

“Othering is a phenomenon in which some individuals or groups are defined and labeled as not fitting in within the norms of a social group. It is an effect that influences how people perceive and treat those who are viewed as being part of the in-group versus those who are seen as being part of the out-group.“

This makes a lot of sense to me. There are four administrators on my site and well over 80 teachers and another 50 or so staff members who work in the offices and across campus to keep our school running. With only four administrators, we are absolutely a small group – and, when it’s a teacher or classified staff member complaining, we are absolutely seen as an ‘out-group’.

We are also the only group on campus who is not supported by union representation. Our contracts are renewed annually: there is no tenure for an ADMIN position.

Othering also involves attributing negative characteristics to people or groups that differentiate them from the perceived normative social group. / It is an ‘us vs. them’ way of thinking about human connections and relationships. This process essentially involves looking at others and saying “they are not like me” or “they are not one of us.”

Have you ever heard a teacher tease an administrator for joining ‘the dark side’? “Ew – why would you want to be one of them?” is the implication. They must have terrible jobs and purposefully make like terrible for the saintly teachers on site. Are there elements of an administrator’s job that is meddlesome? You bet – I get to evaluate teachers and call people out (gently, of course) when they are doing something wrong. But we were all teachers once and took on a mantle of different school-based responsibilities, and we work in service of teachers and students.

“Othering is a way of negating another person’s individual humanity and, consequently, those that are have been othered are seen as less worthy of dignity and respect. / Othering also involves attributing negative characteristics to people or groups that differentiate them from the perceived normative social group.“

When teachers or other staff members refer to administrators as the collective “ADMIN”, they are doing just that – negating the humanity of the professionals working with them and in support of them. We crossed over to the dark side, therefore we must be less worthy of respect.

Beyoncé has it right. Say my name. My name is X. If you want to call me out, call me out by my name and treat my like the human being that I am. Need to call out a member of my team? Use their name. But don’t lump us together as a blob – teachers should be better than that.