What’s in a Name: Building an Inclusive Class Community With the First Day Roll Call

The online education environment invites students from all classes, creeds, races, and genders into a single classroom community. It is the educator’s responsibility to make these adult learners feel both welcome and inspired without being face-to-face. How can an educator celebrate their class’ diversity when the class is not physically present together? It begins with names.

Chen (2016) notes some students feel pressure to alter their names—and consequently their identities—to something more “English” in order to fit in. In many cultures, “naming is a specific, conscious and deliberate linguistic act intimately linked with values [and] traditions” that should be celebrated by the educator and the class community (Mashiri, Chabata, & Chitando, 2013). This presentation will analyze the importance names carry with students and their cultural identities, and that when an educator takes time to properly pronounce every student’s name, that educator is showing every student their identity and culture matter in the classroom.

Learning Outcomes

ANALYZE the cultural importance of names and identity among adult learners in the virtual education setting.

EVALUATE the benefits of dedicating the first synchronous meeting to student name pronunciation.

APPLY name-learning strategies to the live class setting with tips for acquiring necessary information from a diverse group of students and building an inclusive community during this initial meeting.