During small group teaching, one of the group discussions was a discussion of how to begin a session with a new group. It interested me greatly that the other members of my group felt they needed to introduce themselves and their credentials to the students at the start of the first session. I didn't. In particular they felt the need to explain to the students why they were qualified to teach the course.
One aspect of this of course is that for me to stand up at the start of the first class and say "I'm a PhD student and they couldn't find anyone to teach this." would be demoralising and cause a lack of confidence.
However I think there is more to it than that. I could have easily told them of my mathematics degree from Nottingham, my membership of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, the professional body for mathematics, etc., and shown I was more than capable of teaching the course. The thought that I might didn't cross my mind.
If I went to a lesson on, say, writing a successful grant application, I might reasonably expect the tutor to explain why they are qualified to teach this lesson; why do they know more than I or the man on the street on this topic? That sort of topic is subjective and I would want to know: if I disagree with something the tutor says, why should I revise my viewpoint? If they are an expert and have a record of experience in writing successful grant applications, their opinion on subjective issues may become of more interest.
Mathematics, at the level I am teaching, is not subjective in this way. What was true for Napier on logarithms almost 400 years ago and Newton on Calculus later that century is still true today. The authority, then, comes from the body of knowledge I am teaching. I wonder if this is why I didn't feel my credentials were relevant? I know this content; if I didn't I wouldn't have been employed to teach it. And the mathematics in the course is built up over thousands of years. I see myself as a guide to this world, rather than a master of the topic with insight to learn from.
