Contribution
Description: In the light of the "Remodelled Workforce" strategy, the roles and expectations of many "teaching assistants" in England's primary schools are continually changing. Teaching assistants , who were initially employed to assist "the teacher" to "teach", are focussing more and more, particularly since the introduction of PPA time, on delivering the curriculum - teaching whole classes. Although in theory, they are "supervised" by an academically qualified teacher, the term "supervised" does not neccessarily relate to on-task supervision.
A plethora of training courses aimed to support and continue the professional development of the teaching assistant have been devised and are available at colleges and universities. They are complemented [sometimes replaced] by school training. Although guidelines on teacher assistant training, qualifications and rates of pay are set down by government authorities, these are not statutory and most are employed, trained and paid at the discretion of the headteacher.
A large percentage of teaching assistants already contracted in schools didn't foresee such a watershed in their careers. They didn't see "teaching" as part of their job role. Teaching assistants who are new to the profession are now being employed to "whole class teach", and on their ability to undertake roles which at one time were considered to be teacher responsibilities.
The DFES have contracted the Institute of Education - University of London - to undertake a programme of research into the deployment and impact of support staff in schools. They state that "There is limited evidence of support staff levels of training and qualifications and of recruitment, retention and deployment patterns, and only very limited evidence about the impact of support staff in schools." [www.dfes.gov.uk/research/programmeofresearch/projectinformation] However, the end date of this research is March 31st 2008. I presume that until then, the workforce will continue to remodel, and that teaching assistants will pursue their careers in varying ways, dependant upon the needs of "the school".
In the midst of the teaching assistants' title change to "Cover Supervisor", "Instructor", "Higher Level Teaching Assistant", "Nominated Teacher" [Time for Standards: Transforming the School Workforce, 2004], "Associate Teacher", or my own term of "Hybrid Teacher", this paper aims to address the current and forseeable role of the teaching assistant in the primary sector.
Dependant on further government research, it is possible to suggest that the school workforce will eventually comprise of a melting of teachers and teaching assistants into one, and a system which employs different types of teacher will be introduced. For example, the academic teacher, the pastoral teacher, the core subject teacher, the foundation subject teacher are possible titles which could be on the horizon. Should this be accomplished, teaching in the main would no longer be a graduate profession.
Methodology: My research is constructed on the foundations and principles of "Grounded Theory" [Strauss and Corbin]. I am researching in four case study schools and am employing the methods of written questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations, whole school observations, shadowing, diary analysis, the product of children's work; interviews and liasions with internet news groups [via the TES web site].
Conclusions: My research is currently inconclusive. However, it is possible to predict that should teaching assistants continue to be employed as classroom teachers:
" Teaching may become a non-graduate profession
" Supply teachers may no longer be employed in the workforce
" A teacher shortage [acknowledged in previous years] maybe overcome
" The costs of supporting a fully graduate profession will be greatly reduced
" Educational standards may suffer in the long term
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