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Introduction

Teaching assistants, and similar learning support staff, are part of a growing new workforce in the public sector. They are sometimes referred to as ‘paraprofessionals’ – that is, workers who supplement and support the work of qualified professionals. After an early beginning in the 1960s as ‘aides’, ‘helpers’ and ‘auxiliaries’, teaching assistants have become essential to children's learning in primary schools across the United Kingdom (UK) and further afield. If you are in a learning support role in a school, you are part of this historic development.

For convenience, we have adopted the generic term ‘teaching assistant’ throughout this unit. This is currently the preferred term used by the Government but there are many others in use across the UK. Some of these are highlighted in Emily's illustration of ‘adult helpers’. We use ‘teaching assistant’ to refer to the various kinds of volunteer and paid adult (other than qualified teachers) who provide learning support to primary-aged children in the UK.

A central feature of the teaching assistant workforce is its considerable diversity – in terms not only of titles and linked responsibilities but also of previous experience, formal qualifications, in-service training opportunities, ways of working, and skills for carrying out support work. The recruitment of paid assistants and volunteers has brought into schools a range of adults in addition to qualified teachers, with much to offer children. Their work enhances children's experience of learning in school. This unit aims to reflect this diversity and to encourage you to think about the many roles that teaching assistants can play.

One interesting feature of the teaching assistant workforce is the extent to which it is overwhelmingly female. Why are women, especially many who are mothers, drawn to this work, and why are there so few men? Why also is there a marked under-representation of minority ethnic assistants in the workforce as a whole? These are just a few of the questions you will explore in this unit.

As with teachers and their work, teaching assistants require many skills for working with children, and there is often more than one way of being effective. Later in this unit we examine the approach of one teaching assistant, Caroline Higham, and consider how she collaborates with a class teacher in a maths lesson.

No one doubts that teaching assistants are a very significant resource in primary classrooms, so much so that it is hard to imagine how schools could manage without them, unless there were suddenly to be a large increase in the number of qualified teachers. This is most unlikely given the costs involved and the fact that teacher recruitment and retention are problematic in many areas of the UK. So what is the future for the role of teaching assistants? We address this question at the end of the unit.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this unit, you should:

be able to discuss how the UK's teaching assistant workforce came into being;
be developing your understanding that teaching assistants are part of a wider, paraprofessional workforce in the public services of health, social services and education;
have insights into the diverse roles and responsibilities of teaching assistants, and their distinctive contributions across the UK;
be able to identify some of the skills that teaching assistants use to provide effective support and that contribute to productive teamwork;
be reflecting on the value of the work of teaching assistants and on the support skills involved, and thinking about your future role.

1.1 Supporting the professionals

1 The rise of the paraprofessional

1.1 Supporting the professionals

To gain a better understanding of the teaching assistant's role, it is helpful to consider the ways in which different kinds of professionals are supported by paraprofessionals. Just as there are teaching assistants in schools, there are equivalent roles in other areas of work. For instance, in the health service the work of nurses is supported by ‘health care assistants’, and in social work ‘personal assistants’ provide support to children in care (‘looked-after children’). Ian Kessler (2002) suggests the following reasons for these developments.

In many areas of the UK, there have been growing problems recruiting and retaining qualified professionals such as nurses and teachers.
There has been, from government, a wish to ‘modernise’ public services to make them more responsive to their ‘clients’ and more cost efficient.
There is a belief that established professional attitudes and practices should be challenged and improved, and that professionals should develop increased flexibility in their ways of working.

As well as these overarching reasons for employing paraprofessionals, two main factors would appear to be linked to their employment in schools. Firstly, the move towards inclusive education has resulted in the appointment of learning support assistants to give close support to children with complex learning and behaviour needs in mainstream classrooms. Secondly, the devolving of budgets to schools by local education authorities (LEAs) has enabled head teachers to employ increasing numbers of teaching assistants as a cost-effective way of providing support to hard-pressed classroom teachers. Recently, in England the ‘workforce remodelling’ initiative has brought about an even greater focus on the role of teaching assistants. ‘Higher level teaching assistants’ (HILTAs) have been trained to take on many of the administrative duties previously done by teachers and to provide cover supervision for classes of children.

When we think of the teaching assistant workforce, it is also important to remember teaching assistants who are unpaid volunteers. A national survey of English primary, special and independent schools carried out in 2000 (LGNTO, 2000) found that each school had an average of 8.5 volunteer staff. Volunteers are clearly an important, if somewhat under-acknowledged, resource in many schools.

The creation of a new group or ‘echelon’ of paraprofessional workers in the public services has resulted in the restructuring of traditional occupational roles and boundaries, and in professionals delegating some of their duties to others in the workplace. ‘Health care assistants’, for instance, now assist in patient care and ward-related duties under the supervision of a registered nurse or midwife. Their duties include:

assisting in the provision of a high standard of care to patients, promoting their equality and dignity at all times;
assisting with patient hygiene, mobility, physical comfort, eating and drinking, while observing and reporting specific changes to the registered nurse;
providing support for patients' family and friends;
performing and reporting clinical observations of a patient's temperature, pulse, respiration rate, and blood pressure;
obtaining measurement of a patient's height and weight.

Before the creation of these new roles, a registered nurse carried out such responsibilities. Now, health care assistants give support to nurses who are released to do other tasks that assume further knowledge, qualifications and skills. When looking at the duties listed above, you may have noted the generic similarities between a health care assistant and a teaching assistant in the kind of responsibility that is given, and in the types of workplace skills that are called on. Indeed, whether or not you have first aid qualifications or medical knowledge, you may be thinking to yourself, ‘With guidance, I could do some of those duties’. This would suggest that, as a teaching assistant, you have certain transferable skills that reach across other kinds of paraprofessional work.

1.2 Titles, terminology and core duties

1 The rise of the paraprofessional

1.2 Titles, terminology and core duties

As we have said, in the UK there are a number of terms in current use to describe those who provide learning support to children. It would be wrong to suggest that these terms describe the same roles and responsibilities. Rather, they relate to important role distinctions and are significant because they reflect the wide variety of work that learning support staff do. To get a sense of this variety, we made telephone contact with eight schools across the UK to ask what titles they assigned to their learning support staff and to obtain a brief, ‘one-line’ description of the main duties involved.

Table 1: Titles and core duties of learning support staff

Alt Primary School, Oldham, England
Learning support assistants	Working generally in classrooms, often focusing on groups and individual children.
Nursery nurse	Working generally in classrooms, often focusing on groups and individual children.
Learning mentors	Working specifically with individuals with barriers to learning.
Governor volunteer	Working generally in classrooms under the direction of the teacher, e.g. listening to readers.
Parent helpers	Helping with readers, organising resources.
Adult volunteer	Working generally in classrooms under the direction of the teacher, e.g. listening to readers.
St John Moore Primary School, Appleby Magna, Leicestershire, England
Learning support assistants	Group work with ALS and FLS, contribution to individual education plans and follow-up focused work including numeracy. Working with specific pupils with statements in Years 1 to 6.
Nursery nurse	Co-planning of lessons and some assessment of children for the six areas of learning of the Foundation Stage; leading on some activities in the Foundation Stage; general support in Year 1.
Aith Primary School, Shetland, Scotland
Classroom assistants	Administrative support for teachers, preparing materials, hearing readers and playing games with groups who need extra practice.
Additional support needs auxiliary	Working specifically with children with individual education plans.
Alexandra Parade Primary School, Glasgow, Scotland
Classroom assistants	Supporting class teachers in work with whole class. Taking small groups for follow-up sessions. Collating work for classroom displays.
Special educational needs assistants	Supporting children with specific needs, e.g. children with limited mobility who need help with moving up and down stairs, supporting children with autism.
Ysgol Cynfran, Colwyn Bay, Wales
Classroom assistants	Administrative support and work with children, particularly on reading, literacy and music.
Nursery nurse	Assisting in the nursery and reception with children's learning and care, and overseeing resources.
Learning support workers	Working with individual children with high level support needs.
St Francis RC Infant School, Cardiff, Wales
Learning support assistants	Supporting literacy and numeracy in Years 1 and 2. Involved in art, craft and design and technology. Team leader for other learning support assistants.
Parent helpers	Reading with individuals, pairs and groups. Art and craft support, science experiments, school trips. Fundraising – working with the Friends of St Francis.
Caverhill Primary School, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Classroom assistants	From Primary 1, working under the direction of the teacher to prepare materials, working with small groups, putting up displays, taking reading groups and working with ICT.
Special needs classroom assistants	Working one-to-one with specific pupils who have statements of need.
Parent helper	Paired with teacher or year group to help with administration and photocopying, teaching of ICT with small group or whole class, assisting small groups in library sessions, assisting small groups with mathematics from Primary 2.
Strabane Primary School, Strabane, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Classroom assistant	From Primary 1, working under the direction of the teacher to prepare materials, working with small groups, putting up displays, taking reading groups, working with ICT, particular work on new mathematics strategy in Primary 1.
Nursery assistant	Same duties as classroom assistant but in pre-school.
Special needs classroom assistants	Working one-to-one with specific pupils with statements.
Parent helpers	Helping organise library. Helping with shared and paired reading. Helping with school events and trips.

Activity 1: A variety of titles

You should allow 0 hour(s), 50 minute(s).

Examine the table above, which shows the responses from eight schools across the UK following an invitation to briefly describe the titles and core duties of their learning support staff. Consider the variety of titles and duties that are assigned to teaching assistants listed there.

If you are currently working in a school, write down the titles that are used for the learning support staff. Use the table as a model to write a one-line description of your main duties and those of the other support staff.

Now read the discussion

Comment

The eight schools in the table provided eleven different titles. Interestingly, the term ‘teaching assistant’ was not mentioned by these schools – but that's not to say it would not have been found had we surveyed others. The range of roles and duties covered in this small survey is considerable, and it is clear that the staff involved are doing valuable work – particularly in the areas of literacy and mathematics. In the attached pdf document below, authors Ursula Schlapp and Julia Davidson review the Classroom Assistants Initiative in Scotland and refer to the ‘wide remit and competing demands on classroom assistant time’ (p. 20). You might like to read this chapter, but it is not required reading for this unit.

Click on 'View document' to read Classroom assistants in Scottish primary schools.

View document

1.3 Shift in core duties

1 The rise of the paraprofessional

1.3 Shift in core duties

Over the last ten years, many teaching assistants across the UK have experienced a notable change in their day-to-day involvement in schools. A student on The Open University's specialist teacher assistant (STA) course, who started working in schools in 1975, described the shift in her role as ‘from pencil sharpener to work planner’. Another student who had extensive experience of working with children with special educational needs talked of moving ‘from just caring, to learning support with care’.

This shift can be described as moving away from duties related to resource preparation, welfare and general assistance towards those related to children's learning and raising their levels of achievement. For many, this signifies a move to increased independence and responsibility. If you are a teaching assistant, you might work with children who have struggled to understand a key learning task or you might provide support to a small group of children before a literacy lesson, explaining the content of the lesson and enabling them to join in with whole-class activities. Perhaps you compile data that allows teachers to analyse whether children are attaining their targets. The concerted focus of government on literacy and numeracy has served to draw many teaching assistants into such ‘teaching-related’ duties – work that, at one time, only a qualified teacher would have done. If you have been a teaching assistant for a number of years, you may like to take a moment to reflect on the extent to which this change is evident in your own duties. Barbara Lee (2003, p. 27) notes the shift in terms of ‘indirect support’ (e.g. producing materials and managing resources) and ‘direct support’ (e.g. working with individual children and small groups).

Regardless of this shift in duties, tasks associated with the maintenance of the learning environment are still necessary, as they enable teaching and learning to take place. So it is relevant to ask, ‘Who does this work if assistants are spending more time helping children to learn?’ You may have some insights into this. Perhaps one answer is that there is more sharing of maintenance tasks between teachers, teaching assistants, volunteers and children.

1.4 Ways of working and contributing

1 The rise of the paraprofessional

1.4 Ways of working and contributing

The physical design of most primary schools certainly reflects the expectation that teachers work in classrooms with large numbers of children. In fact, given their large classes, most schools feel quite crowded. The employment of teaching assistants has doubled the number of adults working in some classrooms and, as Schlapp and Davidson note in the pdf document attached in Section 1.2, this has sometimes led to problems with regard to teaching assistants finding ‘a work area they can call their own’ (p. 19). Often they give support while working alongside teachers, but some is done in another location. In their survey of 275 teaching assistants in two English LEAs, Hancock et al. (2002) found that 91 per cent said they sometimes withdrew children from classrooms.

There is a further sense in which teaching assistants have needed to find ‘space’ for their work. As part of a relatively new workforce, they have had to integrate their support practice with teachers’ ongoing teaching practice and to work as part of a classroom teaching team.

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Activity 2: Contexts for learning support

You should allow 0 hour(s), 40 minute(s).

View the video sequence above, which features teaching assistants at work in their settings. Make notes on:

the places where the teaching assistants are working (e.g. in a classroom or a withdrawal room);
the nature of their support role (e.g. co-teaching, leading a small group);
the extent to which the experience of these teaching assistants reflects some of the contexts in which you work and some of the roles that you have.

Now read the discussion

Comment

Teachers were once expected to work in schools without the kind of support provided by the teaching assistants in this video sequence, so it is worth considering the ways in which teaching assistants have been ‘added’ to the primary school workforce. Staff in primary schools would no doubt argue that this is long overdue, since more adults are necessary if they are to meet children's personal, social and educational needs. Officially, the justification for this provision has been that teaching assistants help to ‘raise standards’. Clearly, this is important, but it seems to underplay the wider nature of their contribution. For instance, the sequence reveals the ability of all teaching assistants not only to support learning but also to interact with and relate to children in ways that enhance their self-image and experience of school life.

1.5 Growth of the teaching assistant workforce

1 The rise of the paraprofessional

1.5 Growth of the teaching assistant workforce

In all four UK countries there has been a growth in the number of teaching assistants working alongside teachers in primary classrooms. As we have indicated, the seeds of this development were sown some thirty years ago when support staff were employed to support the inclusion of children with special educational needs in mainstream classrooms. Teaching assistants (then and now called ‘special needs assistants’ and ‘learning support assistants’) were recruited to provide individualised help for children. In some areas of the UK, nursery nurses have long worked in nursery and infant classrooms where, it is felt, young children need a higher ratio of adults working with them. You may have experience of these time-honoured support roles.

The rapid growth in teaching assistant numbers that has come about in the past ten years has introduced new roles – for example, those of ‘learning mentor’ and ‘higher level teaching assistant’ (HLTA). Will Swann and Roger Hancock (2003, p. 2) suggest that there has been a ‘dramatic shift in the composition of the primary classroom workforce’. To a large extent, this increase has happened because funds have been made available through specific government funding streams across the UK. The continued availability of such funds is essential for the employment of teaching assistants, and this brings uncertainty with regard to their future prospects.

If you have been working as a volunteer or a paid assistant, you are part of a significant historical development that is having a far-reaching effect on the organisation of primary education, the experiences that children have in classrooms, and the ways in which children are taught in schools. Table 2 below shows the comparative figures (full-time equivalent posts) for teachers and assistants working in primary schools in the four countries of the UK between 2002 and 2004. For the UK overall, as you will note from the ‘Total’ row, the ratio was I assistant to 3.1 teachers. However, there are some interesting regional variations, with Northern Ireland having the least favourable ratio and England having the most favourable.

Table 2: Teachers and teaching assistants in the UK between 2002 and 2004

Country	Teaching assistants	Teachers	Ratio of assistants to teachers
England	71 773	205 800	1 to 2.8
Northern Ireland	1170	8907	1 to 7.6
Scotland	4400	26 700	1 to 6
Wales	2911	12 904	1 to 4.4
Total	80 254	254 301	1 to 3.1

Sources: DfES (2002); DENI (2003a and 2003b); Scottish Executive (2004); Welsh Executive (2002).

The favourable English ratio can largely be explained by the Government's concerted focus on national literacy and numeracy targets, and by the funds made available to recruit teaching assistants to support the 1 in 4 children judged not to be progressing as required (Hancock and Eyres, 2004).

In terms of future numbers, the Government has recently shown its commitment to the role of teaching assistants and this is evidenced in England and Wales through the training of HLTAs. HLTAs have increased teaching assistant responsibilities in terms of children's classroom learning. They supervise classes of children in order to release teachers for lesson preparation and assessment activities, and they carry out specified administrative tasks. The assessment process for achieving HLTA status is explained in Meeting the Professional Standards: Handbook for Candidates (TTA, 2004a), available at www.hlta.gov.uk, accessed 1 December 2006. The HLTA standards (TTA, 2004b), which we look at in Activity 6, are also available at this site.

It is likely, too, that teaching assistants will be further recruited given the development of ‘extended’ and ‘full service’ schools offering out-of-hours learning and school-based childcare. Teaching assistants have the skills and community attachments that are necessary for such provision. Unfortunately, though, they may be seen as a cheap form of labour.

1.6 Teaching assistants in Europe

1 The rise of the paraprofessional

1.6 Teaching assistants in Europe

Teaching assistants and other related learning support staff are also to be found in the schools for children of British armed forces posted overseas, in the schools of other European countries and, indeed, further afield in countries such as the USA, Canada and Australia. A survey conducted by the National Union of Teachers (NUT, 1998) highlighted some interesting support roles found in European schools, and it is worthwhile to consider these in the light of the developing role of teaching assistants in the UK. As the sociologist Amitai Etzioni (1969, p. vi) believed, comparison serves to increase our ‘scope of awareness’. The NUT identified the following examples of support roles in the Netherlands, France and Belgium.

In the Netherlands, as in the UK, there have long been teaching assistants in primary schools, often working in the background and in a supportive way with young children and their teachers. Their current role is comparable with that of specialist teacher assistants in England in that they are focused on directly supporting children's learning, particularly reading and basic skills.

In France, there are ‘surveillants’ (normally aged eighteen to twenty six) who often intend to become teachers. Traditionally, they have contributed to the supervision of pupils when they are on the school premises and outside the classroom. They also liaise with parents in this supervisory role. Recently their role has been extended to provide support for children's learning in classrooms. They have assumed responsibilities in the area of information and communication technology (ICT), in terms of both maintaining equipment and support for learning. There are also ‘aide-educateurs’ (assistant teachers) who mainly take on a pedagogic role in direct support for learning and who facilitate extra-curricular activities.

In Belgium, there are ‘agents contractuels subventionnes’ (subsidised contract workers). They are recruited under schemes to reduce unemployment (similar to the ‘New Deal’ initiative in the UK) and they may become involved in childcare in pre-school settings or assist children to learn a foreign language.

2.1 Who are the paraprofessionals?

2 The paraprofessional labour market

2.1 Who are the paraprofessionals?

So who are the paraprofessionals in the UK and, given the relatively recent need for their labour, where have they come from? As we noted earlier, the great majority of paraprofessionals are women. Between 1995 and 2004, The Open University trained some 3775 teaching assistants through its specialist teacher assistant (STA) course. Many of the women were mothers, and only 37 (about 1 per cent) were male. Heather Wakefield (2003), head of local government liaison at UNISON, emphasises the link between caring work in the public sector and the recruitment of a predominantly female paraprofessional workforce. She suggests that a woman's role in the household and in the family is being ‘imported’ into the workplace where it is of value in a number of ways, not least in terms of her supporting and caring abilities. Wakefield emphasises, however, that this work has traditionally been poorly paid and accorded low ‘manual’ status by employers.

Over the years, there has been discussion as to whether mothers should focus on parenting (unpaid ‘domestic labour’) or become involved in paid employment. Many commentators argue that mothers should be with their children in the home and the community. In contrast, recent social and employment policy appears to give the message that the best place for mothers is in the workplace. The New Deal scheme for lone parents, for instance, encourages single parents (most often women) back into paid work, including becoming teaching assistants. Research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS, 2003) found that over half (55 per cent) of mothers with children under five now have full-time or part-time jobs, whereas in 1980 the figure was 31 per cent. The ONS also found that women are much more likely to work part time than men, and that women spend more time caring for and looking after children (and other dependants) than men, whether they work part time or full time. This shows that the majority of women who work continue to take the main responsibility for childcare and domestic duties in the home.

Susan Hanson and Geraldine Pratt (1995) in their study of the relationships between gender, work and space, note the ways in which women throughout the world, because of their household responsibilities, often become dependent on employment opportunities in their locality; their opportunities for taking on volunteer or paid work are geographically restricted. Hanson and Pratt also suggest that it is hard for couples to have dual careers when there are dependants in the family, and that women tend to give the priority to the man's career. Women, they suggest, often see this ‘as essential to the maintenance of family harmony’ (Hanson and Pratt, 1995, p. 176). Single parents and those with unemployed partners are, of course, in a very different position in the labour market.

The backgrounds of teaching assistants who have studied with The Open University to date provide confirmation of the above points. Many have children who were educated at their school of employment, so they lived locally and were part of the wider school community. A local school is clearly a convenient workplace, as it minimises the journey between home and work. It allows those employed to work during school hours and to take time off in school holidays (though often without pay). Further, because of its focus on educating children, a school is a place where issues concerning the care of children outside school are likely to be valued and understood. Some believe that a school is a ‘family-friendly employer’, to use a current phrase. Additionally, schools are workplaces where knowledge of children and their ways is potentially of value and use. A primary school may also be seen as a community of adults and children, where a local person is likely to feel part of a continuous social network of known local acquaintances, families and familiar faces.

Activity 3: Your reasons

You should allow 0 hour(s), 20 minute(s).

With the above points in mind, if you are – or would like to be – in a learning support role, make a list of your reasons for wanting to be involved in this kind of work.

Now read the discussion

Comment

We invited Mary-Jane Bayliff, a teaching assistant who works in Dorset, to give an account of her reasons for working in schools. In response, she wrote:

I have always wanted to work with children.

I had experience of work relating to children, for example at camps and in clubs.

I felt my experience as a mother and childminder was a good foundation from which to start.

I was keen to look after my own children during school holidays and during after-school hours.

I had a particular interest in my own children's school, having been a volunteer helper and member of the PTA.

After seeing school through a parent's eyes, I felt I had something of value to give, in terms of caring for children and bringing an understanding to home–school relations.

Clearly, there is much in Mary-Jane's previous experience that contributes to her ability as a teaching assistant.

2.2 Profile of teaching assistants: an overview

2 The paraprofessional labour market

2.2 Profile of teaching assistants: an overview

Traditionally the primary education sector has employed a high proportion of women teachers. In England and Wales in 1980, male teachers constituted around 23 per cent and female teachers 77 per cent of the workforce (DES, 1980). By 1999 the number of men had decreased to 17 per cent and that of women had increased to 83 per cent (DfES, 2002). There is reason to think that this trend is continuing. Primary teaching is certainly a ‘feminised’ workforce, but there are also anomalies related to ethnicity and age. In most primary schools there is an under-representation of minority ethnic teachers – particularly of males – and, given the large cohort of teachers recruited in the 1960s and 1970s, there is currently an over-representation of ‘mature’ teachers (those currently in their fifties). This demographic anomaly is a particular cause for concern, as it could mean further teacher shortages across the UK when this age group takes retirement.

2.3 Gender, age and ethnicity profile of teaching assistants

2 The paraprofessional labour market

2.3 Gender, age and ethnicity profile of teaching assistants

Activity 4: Gender, age and ethnicity

You should allow 0 hour(s), 40 minute(s).

We have seen the extent to which the teaching assistant workforce is a gendered group. But what are its characteristics in terms of age and ethnicity?

Look at Table 3 below, which shows the profiles of 679 teaching assistants in terms of gender, age and ethnicity in two large LEAs in England.

Table 3: Profile of assistants in two LEAs in England

Profile category	Percentage
Gender
Male	1.1
Female	98.9
Total	100
Age
under 25	3.9
26–30	5.4
31–35	10.5
36–40	25.1
41–45	29.8
46–50	13.4
over 50	11.9
Total	100
Ethnicity
Black Caribbean	0.4
Black UK	0.1
South Asian	1.2
Asian – other	0.1
White UK	97.2
White non-UK	1
Total	100

Source: Hancock et al., 2002, p. 32.

Think about the following three questions and note down your answers.

Why might there be so few men working as teaching assistants?

Why is the smallest percentage of the teaching assistant workforce aged under twenty five?

Why does ‘white UK’ constitute the largest percentage of the teaching assistant workforce?

Now read the discussion

Comment

Low number of men: Of the 679 classroom assistants surveyed in this study, just 7 of them were men (1.1 per cent). You may have cited low pay as a reason for the lack of men, but there has also long been a lack of interest when it comes to men choosing to work with younger children. Maybe there is a general distrust in society of men working with young children (Owen et al., 1998). The younger the children, the more female dominated is the associated workforce, and this means that it is women who, in the main, work with children in the early years and also in primary education (but perhaps to a lesser extent). Interestingly, there is a more balanced distribution of men and women teachers in secondary teaching, approximately half and half (DfES, 2002).

Low number of under twenty-five year olds: As we have already stated, it seems that working in a primary school allows mothers of young children the flexibility they need to carry out the domestic responsibilities that many women still have. The link between being a mother of a child at a primary school and gaining work as a teaching assistant appears strong. This may also reduce the number of younger applicants, as they are more likely to seek better-paid, full-time employment outside their locality.

Low number of minority ethnic assistants: Only 13 (1.8 per cent) of these assistants came from black and Asian minority ethnic groups. Minority ethnic recruitment is extremely low, despite the fact that the survey was done in two large LEAs with some sizeable towns and conurbations. Inner city areas throughout the UK may well have a higher percentage of minority ethnic assistants. For example, in recent years, the percentage of minority ethnic students from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets studying The Open University's STA course has grown from 9 per cent in 1998 to 45 per cent in 2003. This statistic must reflect a growing percentage of minority ethnic students employed as teaching assistants in Tower Hamlets, and this can be linked to the ethnicity of the local population.

Janet Moyles and Wendy Suschitzky (1997) in their study of classroom assistants working with five to seven year olds (aptly named Jills of all Trades?) found that many schools recruited their paid teaching assistants from known volunteer parents who were already developing the required skills by helping out in the school. This practice makes sense in terms of having a pool of available people who can take on paid classroom support duties when vacancies occur. However, it may well disadvantage some applicants, including those from minority ethnic groups who, for various reasons, may not find themselves developing a close relationship with a school or having time to work on the school premises as a volunteer helper.

There are many ways of involving parents and carers in school life and learning, but it is important to bear in mind that what may work well in one part of the UK may not work so well in another, and what works for many parents in one school may not be effective elsewhere.

3.1 What is the value of teaching assistants?

3 Contribution and roles

3.1 What is the value of teaching assistants?

Hilary Cremin et al. (2003) in their evaluation of the ways in which teachers and teaching assistants can work together in teams, suggest that, while there is enthusiasm for additional support, little attention is given to how this actually works in classrooms. It is true that learning support staff have been introduced into classrooms without clear research evidence that they can make a difference to children's learning, but then life often moves faster than the supply of research evidence.

As we have indicated, volunteers are often invited into schools to assist teachers, and teaching assistants are employed without necessarily having any specific training (although, increasingly, in-service training is being made available). However, as we have suggested, volunteers and teaching assistants often have relevant informal experience, transferable abilities and intuitive skills that can support the work they do in schools. Furthermore, common sense suggests that, when large classes of children have access to additional adults who wish to help and support them, this will have a favourable impact on their learning and development. For instance, in a similar way, many schools actively encourage parental involvement in children's homework.

Evidence of the value of teaching assistants is now coming through, particularly in research reports. Kathy Hall and Wendy Nuttall (1999) in their survey of English infant teachers found that 75 per cent rated classroom assistants as equal to, or more important than, class size in terms of the quality of teaching and learning. More recently, Valerie Wilson et al. (2002) provide evidence from Scotland, and Roger Hancock et al. (2002) add to the evidence from England. References to the important work of learning support staff can also be found in formal inspection reports from Ofsted in England, Estyn in Wales, HMIS in Scotland, and ETI in Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland a recent chief inspector's report stated that, ‘Evidence from inspection highlights the positive contribution made by classroom assistants, including those employed under the “Making a Good Start” initiative (MAGS), in helping to promote and support the children's early learning and development’ (ETI, 2002, para.2.19).

3.2 What do children and parents think of teaching assistants?

3 Contribution and roles

3.2 What do children and parents think of teaching assistants?

Curiously, little has been written about their perspectives. A small-scale study involving 78 primary-aged children in England (Eyres et al., 2004) showed that children can, when asked, differentiate between their own class teacher and other adults who work with them. However, the children reported a substantial overlap between the activities of teachers and teaching assistants. For instance, eight-year-old Sarah said:

Well, the helpers seem to help out and do what the teacher does and the teacher seems to mostly teach children. But sometimes the helpers teach children.

And eleven-year-old Lissette speculated:

Well, Miss McAngel is the actual teacher, teacher, teacher. She actually teaches us everything because she's just a teacher and she teaches us everything. But, if you like, you've got another teacher, they teach us – pretty much they'd teach us everything but Miss McAngel would do different things with us – d'you know what I mean? – sort of, I can't put it into words really – but – can you help? (looking towards Tim, her friend).

(Eyres et al., 2004, pp. 157–8)

To a large extent, teachers and teaching assistants were seen by the children in this study as working in ‘interdependent’ ways, with each making a significant contribution to children's learning.

With regard to parents, given that many teaching assistants are parents from the local community, we can speculate that other parents are in touch with the ways in which teachers have increasingly delegated certain teaching-related responsibilities to assistants. But maybe this is not the case. Teaching assistants, after all, are a new workforce. When today's parents were at primary school, they would not have had experience of assistants working alongside teachers in the way that children do now.

A questionnaire survey of parents' perceptions of assistants by two specialist teacher assistants working at Roche Community School in Cornwall (Strongman and Mansfield, 2004) found that most of the parents placed great value on the contribution of teaching assistants. As one parent wrote, ‘They are of value as a backup for the teacher, as an extra pair of eyes in the classroom.’ Another parent noted that ‘A good assistant can be priceless in the classroom. With up to thirty-seven children in each class, how could a teacher do her job effectively without assistants?’

However, while these parents recognised the important role of assistants in their children's primary school, many also felt that there should be a clear distinction between the roles of teachers and teaching assistants. As one parent said, ‘Teaching assistants should not "teach" the class, they should only assist the teacher.’ The extent to which this linguistic distinction – between ‘teaching’ and ‘assisting’ – can be maintained in classrooms when many teachers and teaching assistants are now working closely together in teams is open to question. When a teaching assistant ‘assists’ or ‘supports’ or ‘helps’ a child, there is always the possibility that the child will learn. Therefore, it could be said that the assistant has ‘taught’ that child, just as it could be said that parents teach their children many things and, as we emphasise in a number of places in the course, children often teach each other.

Perhaps a more appropriate way of thinking about this is to say that teachers, as qualified professionals, hold the overall responsibility for what goes on in a classroom in terms of learning and teaching. Children, it seems, understand this. In the study by Eyres et al. (2004) a number of children were clear that the teachers in their classrooms were ultimately in charge. As six-year-old Sam commented:

Well, Mrs Wilson and Mrs Georgio [both teaching assistants] don't tell us what to do. Mrs Watts [the teacher] tells us what to do.

(Eyres et al., 2004, p. 155)

3.3 Distinctive contributions

3 Contribution and roles

3.3 Distinctive contributions

In Activity 1 you looked at brief descriptions of the duties of classroom support staff working in eight schools across the UK. Despite the brevity of information, there is sufficient to suggest that teaching assistants in these schools have wide ranging roles, and that their different titles relate to different types of responsibilities. Let us now consider the essential nature of the work that assistants do and the way they contribute to the totality of work in a classroom.

Are teaching assistants ‘simply’ assisting teachers in doing their work? If this is so, it seems that teachers and assistants are working together to carry out the duties that previously teachers working alone would have covered. On this analysis, teaching assistants take on those whole-school and classroom duties that teachers feel they can delegate to a less qualified, but not necessarily less experienced, colleague. In theory, this should leave teachers with ‘spare’ time to do additional tasks of their choice, because another person is doing part of their work. Alternatively, perhaps teaching assistants are in part doing tasks that teachers do not have time to do themselves. If this is so, then the job of teaching a class has ‘expanded’, since, as you will no doubt confirm, both teachers and teaching assistants are still finding more than enough work to do!

Job descriptions aim to capture the work that teaching assistants should do. This might be categorised in terms of ‘administrative duties’, ‘classroom resource preparation’ and ‘work with children’. An interesting framework for thinking about roles, duties and the focus of support work is given in The Teaching Assistant's File (DfEE, 2000, para.2.5), which suggests four levels of support for:

pupils
the teacher
the school
the curriculum.

You will consider the usefulness of this framework in the next activity.

Activity 5: Distinctive contributions

You should allow 1 hour(s), 20 minute(s).

Now read Extract 1, ‘Eight titles and roles’, by Roger Hancock and Jennifer Colloby (see below). It contains thumbnail sketches of the roles and responsibilities of eight learning support staff.

Click on 'View document' to read the extract.

View document

Select one thumbnail that particularly interests you and consider the extent to which the title and role described relate to the DfEE's four-part framework, which we mentioned above. If you are working in a school, does the framework capture the totality of your working week?

Using the thumbnails for guidance, if you are working in a school extend the description of the main duties that you wrote about in Activity 1 to provide a thumbnail sketch of your role (about 200–300 words). Use each part of the four-part framework if that helps in your writing.

Now read the discussion

Comment

We expect that there will be considerable differences in the thumbnails. A factor that we have not yet mentioned but that impacts on the ways in which teaching assistants are deployed is their flexibility as a workforce. Many are employed on a part-time basis, often with short-term contracts. One classroom assistant told us, ‘My job description changes every term!’ Teaching assistants may be moved around in a school so that they can work with individuals and groups of children as and when the need arises. As you may know, in England the national literacy and numeracy strategies have spawned a large number of ‘catch-up’ and ‘booster’ programmes for children who are not meeting expectations. Teaching assistants have been very much involved in these programmes, which require considerable flexibility on their part as they work across year groups with identified children.

3.4 Evolving roles in teaching

3 Contribution and roles

3.4 Evolving roles in teaching

The impact of the expanding contribution of teaching assistants on the teacher's role is generally recognised as being positive. It is worth acknowledging, however, that many teachers have had to make adjustments to their practice in order to work with teaching assistants as team colleagues. Despite the presence of assistants in primary schools, the focus of much initial teacher training is on teachers working in classrooms on their own rather than as collaborators with other adults. While there is a professional standard related to ‘working with others’ that those awarded QTS must be competent in, teachers’ ability to work collaboratively continues – more often than not – to arise out of their experience of trying it out after their initial training. Newly qualified teachers (NQTs) may therefore need time to establish how they wish to approach teamwork and team teaching.

As we have indicated earlier in this unit, teaching assistants can bring considerable benefits for teachers and children. However, while there is talk of teaching assistants reducing teachers' workloads, the reality is not so straightforward. If teachers are to benefit from the expertise that a well-informed teaching assistant can bring to the partnership, they need to find time to discuss and share ideas on teaching and the curriculum. This is not unlike the role that teachers take on in their supervision of students on teaching practice, where co-planning, co-teaching and feedback form much of the early stages of their training.

We often read that assistants ‘work under the close supervision of teachers’ or that teachers ‘manage’ teaching assistants. This is a time consuming role, which encroaches greatly on the teaching and non-teaching time of teachers. Furthermore, teachers are legally required to take responsibility for teaching assistants' day-to-day interactions with children and to oversee their support work. Unlike teachers, assistants cannot be in loco parentis (literally, ‘in the place of a parent’) and so cannot take the responsibility that the law requires of teachers when children are in their care. This means that teaching assistants must be guided and supported by teachers, not only in terms of their curriculum-support practice but also in key areas of work such as health and safety and child protection.

The great majority of teachers recognise the part that this extra work plays in the provision of a future teaching force; moreover, they appreciate that sharing good practice and observing colleagues can help them to develop their own role. Given the distinct lack of non-contact time in primary schools, teaching assistants and teachers are required to manage carefully the precious little time they have available for productive discussion.

4.1 Focusing on support practice

4 Support in action

4.1 Focusing on support practice

If you are a teaching assistant, your role of supporting teaching and learning in the classroom may have evolved with time. Alternatively you may have been recruited to the role for that very purpose. Perhaps you lie somewhere in the middle, having joined the body of teaching assistants just as the role was being reviewed and bearing witness to its expansion and development. In the final section of this unit, we focus with a degree of detail on the practice of teaching assistant Caroline Higham.

Caroline Higham is relatively new to the role of full-time teaching assistant. She has two children who were educated at the school where she is employed. Caroline would eventually like to be a qualified teacher and she is studying to complete a relevant degree on a part-time basis.

Over the few years that Caroline has been at the school, her role has grown both in the number of hours that she works and in the nature of her responsibilities. She now has considerable responsibility for organising and maintaining the school's reading programme and she works closely with the head teacher, who is responsible for this area of the curriculum. Caroline is involved in the refitting of the school's library and the purchase of new library books. She enjoys her associated responsibility for children's progress and attainment. She keeps records of the individual children she supports, and she updates these at the end of each school day and shares them with staff.

Caroline has gained many insights into individual children's learning and the barriers to learning that they might experience. Parents often ask her for advice, so she has to judge when to pass their requests to teaching staff. She is compassionate and fiercely loyal to the children. In her own area in the school, where she sometimes works with small groups of children or with individuals, the atmosphere is welcoming and there are stimulating displays on the walls.

Activity 6: Providing support

You should allow 1 hour(s), 10 minute(s).

Read Extract 2, ‘Providing learning support in a mathematics lesson’, by Jennifer Colloby (see below).

Click on 'View document' to read the extract.

View document

When you have read the extract, look at Table 4 below, which lists three HLTA standards. Think about the extract as you read the table, and note the ways in which Caroline exemplifies the three selected standards.

Now, if applicable, consider your own practice. Can you identify the requirements of any of these standards in your work? Briefly record evidence of those that you completely (or partially) exemplify.

Table 4: Claiming HLTA standards

HLTA standard	Caroline's practice	My practice
Understand the aims, content, teaching strategies and intended outcomes for the lessons in which they are involved, and understand the place of these in the related teaching programme. (Standard 2.3)	She displays a sense of purpose about the lesson through her interactions with and directions to children. This is revealed in her knowledge of the purpose of the lesson and her awareness of the tasks that children need to complete.
Know a range of strategies to establish a purposeful learning environment and to promote good behaviour. (Standard 2.9)	The way in which Caroline goes about her support role suggests that she has the skills to keep children on task when necessary, to confirm their achievements, and to ensure that her group is engaging with the planned activities.
Monitor pupils' responses to learning tasks and modify their approach accordingly. (Standard 3.2.2)	At all times Caroline shows a good awareness of what each member of her group is doing. She makes adjustments to her interactions and support based on the children's changing needs.

Now read the discussion

Comment

Standards – whether national occupational standards for teaching assistants, HLTA standards, or those related to the award of QTS – often contain several ideas and practices. For instance, HLTA Standard 2.3 above contains five ideas with regard to lessons and learners. When standards are matched to practice, judgements must be made about whether certain examples of practice qualify for a full or partial claim and how much evidence of successful practice is required for a standard to be met. From the description of Caroline's practice in the extract, it seems that she could claim competence in the three standards listed in the table. Given that these standards are central to learning support work, we anticipate that, if you are currently working in teaching, you also may feel that you can claim some or maybe all of them.

4.2 Teaching assistants of the future

4 Support in action

4.2 Teaching assistants of the future

There is surely not a more exciting time than now for teaching assistants. Not only has the contribution of the teaching assistant's role to the effective teaching of the curriculum been recognised by inspection bodies across the UK, but it is poised for increased responsibility and development. In January 2003, the Government signed a National Workforce Remodelling Agreement with key partners such as LEAs and teaching unions. The aim of the agreement is to further improve standards in schools by giving teachers more time to concentrate on teaching. Mostly, this will be achieved through increased support from teaching assistants, including covering whole classes by HLTAs. If this proceeds as planned, it will certainly affect the future roles and responsibilities of both teachers and teaching assistants in England and Wales.

These proposals do come with some caution, however. There is concern that HLTAs will, in effect, take on work that should be done by a qualified teacher. There is also speculation over the extent to which increased teaching assistant responsibilities will lead to pay that reflects these responsibilities. At the time of writing, the Government has promised to provide further money for the future expansion and training of teaching assistants. Flexible training and assessment modules will include links to foundation degrees and further training opportunities for teaching assistants to progress to QTS should they so wish.

Various shifts in educational policy combined with perceived changing needs in schools have led, and continue to lead, to new challenges for teaching assistants. It is unlikely that, twenty years ago, teachers and the (then) small number of teaching assistants in primary schools would have been able to forecast the extent to which the role of an assistant would develop, and the extent to which assistants would be brought into the professional lives of teachers. What might the future bring for teaching assistants?

Activity 7: Two visions

You should allow 0 hour(s), 40 minute(s).

Now read the two ‘visions for the future’ that follow. Might they reflect aspects of your current or future role? If you are in learning support work, how do you see your role in ten years' time? Note down your thoughts.

A teaching assistant's vision

What can teaching assistants contribute to the classroom and school life more broadly? How do I see my job as a teaching assistant for a primary school evolving over the next ten years? Completing the STA course at The Open University has opened my eyes to how valuable we (teaching assistants) can be and what a difference we can make to the education of children, by working positively with those involved in their learning.

My role has changed constantly over the five years I have been a teaching assistant. Working with individuals who have specific needs often means that I am the first point of contact for outside professionals such as speech therapists and educational psychologists. I can see myself in the future acting as special needs coordinator, maintaining a register and action plan for children with specific needs, and monitoring progress. I already manage the special needs resources for literacy in our school in conjunction with a reading programme that reinforces and develops literacy skills for lower attaining children. I would love to have control of a budget specifically for such resources and to be responsible for updating and modifying old materials.

I have acquired an understanding of different children's learning styles and I have developed strategies to stimulate and motivate individuals. This has included using ‘non-directive communication therapy’ (which plays to a child's strengths) and Makaton sign language. This specific area of expertise enhances the wider training I have received through The Open University's STA course as well as other courses. In the next ten years, I imagine becoming a mentor to other teaching assistants across my LEA, sharing skills and knowledge to encourage and develop good practice.

Teachers are faced with extreme time constraints, and teaching assistants add value in being a second pair of expert eyes in the classroom, recognising children's achievements and individual needs. By making formative assessments they can help teachers to develop and improve provision through effective planning and the setting of clear objectives. I already develop brief lesson plans to support the reading scheme I use with small groups, and in the future I hope to have a greater role in planning. I see myself providing differentiated lesson plans for the low attaining children in core subjects, freeing up teachers’ time to focus on others, and ensuring that all children can access the curriculum at an individually appropriate level.

Good reading skills are fundamental to a child's education, so it is vital that individual reading is encouraged and independent skills are promoted. Given my special interest, I see myself as a valuable part of the school's teaching staff in the future, perhaps providing a centre of excellence in reading development. This would include management of the school's reading programme and the monitoring of children's progress, with myself as a key point of contact for parents and staff alike, and the ‘right-hand person’ to the English coordinator.

As an integral member of staff, I will certainly be more than ‘an assistant’ in ten years' time!

A head teacher's vision

To develop further we must accept change, and to change we must recognise that there is a need for it. What will teaching assistants of the future look like? Will they perhaps be curriculum specialists, or needs-focused practitioners, or administrative experts? I would argue for all three! Teaching assistants will be part of an over-arching desire to provide quality educational experiences for children. The barriers of the present – legal and ideological – will be broken down.

The school of the future, where education is solidly based on an ethos of opportunity for all, in a framework of ‘elearning’, will have teaching assistants on the leadership team and managing people and resources. They will be involved in planning, resourcing and assessing specific features of the curriculum, and they will be empowered to tackle a greater range of educational issues. Leaders with a clear vision and focus will deploy teaching assistants. This deployment will be purposeful, adding clarity and increased professional standing to teaching assistants. There will be classroom partnerships with a clear sense of shared expectations and increased positive outcomes. Given their involvement In the school's leadership structure, teaching assistants will assume a shared responsibility for taking the collective vision forward. Clear responsibilities will be defined to enable them to manage and lead other support staff.

The teaching assistants of the future will not only support teachers with curriculum development but will take on explicit ownership of subject areas. They will research and discuss subject development while working alongside the teacher focusing on the development of children's learning skills and ‘personalised’ learning. I clearly envisage a time when well-trained teaching assistants will take specific, focused lessons. Such lessons will fall within the overall framework for teaching held by teachers and will enable them to have non-contact time.

Following ‘workforce remodelling’, the administrative teaching assistant will perform the duties of a personal assistant. The role will include ICT-based tasks, attendance monitoring and the emailing of lessons or the setting up of conference sessions to enable local, national and international learning to take place. This assistant role will be central in terms of sharing and collecting information.

Two (questions should be raised, as follows. Is my vision so very different to current practice in schools around the UK? Who will want to take on such a role? As far as the first question is concerned, my answer would be a guarded ‘yes’. Today, there are teaching assistants performing many of the tasks outlined. However, I would argue that what is missing is a consistent approach as to how they can be deployed effectively. As for the second question, the roles identified should serve to suit a range of individuals. Whether they are people seeking to support in a general way, or individuals looking for a career structure, the overall role is fluid enough to allow optimum use of many who seek to do support work. However, I would argue that, to be most effective, the role of the teaching assistant must be devised with a clear sense of vision. Advertisements must be skills-based and teaching assistants must be employed for a specific purpose.

In conclusion, the role and deployment of teaching assistants is so often governed by financial constraints and a reluctance of current leaders to pursue a more creative and challenging approach to learning. The only way forward is for teaching assistants to be governed by a professional set of standards and to work in partnership with teachers so that schools become centres for educational excellence.

Now read the discussion

Comment

Both visions present reasons for expanding the role of teaching assistants, and, as we have discussed above, they involve further delegation of teaching-related duties and professional responsibilities. Clearly, such visions raise many issues, and there are likely to be varying responses to these depending on where you live and work in the UK. How realistic and desirable are they from your perspective? Can you relate to the possible future developments that Juliet and Nick, both based in English schools, foresee?

5.1 Review

5 Conclusion

5.1 Review

One of the central aims of this unit has been to give you a sense of being part of an exciting educational development. We have therefore set the employment of teaching assistants in the context of the widespread growth of a new paraprofessional workforce across public services. We have noted the gendered nature of this workforce in schools, identified reasons why local parents in particular are attracted to working in schools, and highlighted the valuable contribution that teaching assistants make in view of their life and previous work experiences. We have suggested that, although there is much overlap in the roles that assistants take on (whatever their title and wherever they work in the UK) there are also important defining distinctions to be made. Teaching assistants take on a wide variety of responsibilities. Two extracts have been included in this unit to illustrate this richness of a teaching assistant's role (Extract I) and to highlight the demanding, and often complex, nature of their work alongside a teacher in a classroom (Extract 2).

This unit has given you a glimpse into some possible future roles of teaching assistants. Clearly this is a controversial topic, which is open for discussion, especially in terms of defining appropriate professional and paraprofessional boundaries across the UK. One thing is certain, though, given the constant changes that are part of primary education: teaching assistants and teachers are likely to experience ongoing changes in how their work is defined.

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References

Cremin, H., Thomas, G. and Vincett, K. (2003) ‘Learning zones: an evaluation of three models for improving learning through teacher/teaching assistant teamwork’, Support for Learning, vol.18, no.4, pp.154–61.

Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) (2000) The Teaching Assistant's File: Induction Training For Teaching Assistants, DfEE, London.

Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (2002) ‘Teachers in maintained schools who are women: by grade, 1990, 1995 and 1999’, Social Trends 31, London, DfES.

Department of Education Northern Ireland (DENI) (2003a) The Teacher Payroll and Pensions System, Belfast, DENI.

Department of Education Northern Ireland (DENI) (2003b) Education and Library Boards Annual Staff (non-teaching) Return, Belfast, DENI.

Department of Education and Science (DES) (1980) Statistics of Education: Teachers in Service in England and Wales, London, HMSO.

Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) (2002) Chief Inspector's Report 1999–2002, Bangor, Department of Education [online],www.deni.gov.uk, accessed 2 December 2006.

Etzioni, A. (1969) The Semi-Professions and their Organisation, London, Free Press.

Eyres, I., Cable, C, Hancock, R. and Turner, J. (2004) ‘ “Whoops, I forgot David”: children's perceptions of the adults who work in their classrooms’, Early Years, vol.24, no.2, pp.149–62.

Hall, K. and Nuttall, W. (1999) ‘The relative importance of class size to infant teachers in England’, British Educational Research Journal, vol.25, no.2, pp.245–58.

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Hancock, R. and Eyres, I. (2004) ‘Implementing a required curriculum reform: teachers at the core, teaching assistants on the periphery?’, Westminster Studies in Education, vol.27, no.2, pp.219–31.

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Owen, C, Cameron, C. and Moss, P. (eds) (1998) Men as Workers in Services for Young Children: Issues of a Mixed Gender Workforce, London, Institute of Education, University of London.

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Strongman, M. and Mansfield, T. (2004) ‘Survey of parents’ perceptions of teaching assistants’ (unpublished study), Roche Community School, Cornwall.

Swann, W. and Hancock R. (2003) ‘Variations in primary school teaching assistant employment: a need for standardisation’ (unpublished paper) Milton Keynes, The Open University. Available from w.r.hancock@open.ac.uk

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Teacher Training Agency (TTA) (2004a) Meeting the Professional Standards: Handbook for Candidates, London, TTA.

Teacher Training Agency (TTA) 2004b) Professional Standards for Higher Level Teaching Assistants, London, TTA.

Wakefield, H. (2003) ‘Public servants’, Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4, 15 November.

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Wilson, V., Schlapp, U. and Davidson, J. (2002) More than ‘An Extra Pair of Hands’? Evaluation of the Classroom Assistant Initiative in Scotland, Glasgow, SCRE Centre, University of Glasgow.

Acknowledgements

The content acknowledged below is proprietary (see terms and conditions) and is used under licence. See http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=15, accessed 2 December 2006.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit:

Illustration by Emily Dixon; her first commission. With thanks to Sarah and Paul Dixon for permission.

Illustration by Soraya Dali-Chaouch. With thanks to Mr and Mrs Dali-Chaouch for permission.

Photograph of Caroline Higham. With thanks to Caroline Higham.

Photograph of Juliet Frost. With thanks to Juliet Frost.

Photograph of Nick Hague. With thanks to Nick Hague.

The course team would also like to thank Kathy Simms, El I I Course Secretary, for her research support.

Unit Image

lissame / Melissa Trachtenberghttp://www.flickr.com/photos/lissame/9232085/

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