Teaching assistants’ preparedness for teaching. An exploration of teaching assistants’ views on evidence-based changes to practice

ABSTRACT The role of the teaching assistant in school has changed significantly in recent years, and, in most schools, teaching assistants now work alongside teachers in a teaching role. The large scale Deployment of Teaching Assistants (DISS) and Effective Deployment of Teaching Assistants (EDTA) projects concluded that teaching assistants’ preparedness for this role has a significant impact on the quality of teaching and learning, and made specific recommendations about the deployment, preparedness, and practice of teaching assistants in schools. This research builds on the reports’ outcomes by eliciting ’ teaching assistants' views on their preparedness following implementation of the recommendations. The study found that despite the evidence-based changes put in place, there were additional structural, personal, and interpersonal factors that influenced how prepared teaching assistants felt for their teaching role. The research enabled the teaching assistants' voices to be heard, and their experience within the ecology of the school made visible. These detailed, more nuanced aspects of the implementation of change were important in informing the school's aim of enabling teaching assistants' preparedness for teaching. How senior managers in school responded to the study outcomes is outlined. The study provides useful insights into issues of the transferability of large-scale studies into the complex ecology of a school.