Changing Role

The TAs ideas on how their role has changed over the years are at the core of their conversations. Avril, Linda and Harriet have been TAs for many years and they consider themselves to be in a changed role from the one they had 15 or 20 years ago, changing from a parent helper to a perceived more complex pedagogical role. They have experienced these changes at first hand and in interviews talk on a practical level about their original role, changes that have occurred leading to their current role:

In the old days, it was seen as mums coming into school to help and it would only be a bit of reading or sitting with a child in the corner, but the role’s developed more now. . . Lots of TAs do preparation, they have an input into class planning, they are given areas of responsibility, and they have been encouraged for self-development (H: 25).

Well over the years, the role of a TA has changed massively. Back in the day it used to be the role of putting up displays, general dogsbody supporting the teacher in their role, giving them more time and space with the children and we were given more menial jobs which helped them work with children. Over the years, it led more into working directly with children, perhaps in groups or individuals, but still massively led by the teacher. Time went on again and you were given a bit more responsibility and not to the point of planning, per se, but using your own imagination somewhat. I suppose your skills helped with that as well, to the point now where TAs often do classroom cover… Looking back over 20 years, the role has changed so much and you do wonder who does the roles that we originally did, because we’ve moved on so much. (L: 1)

Harriet and Linda provide a concise summary of how changes that have affected their role as it developed over the years and through these offer a base for the exploration and

76 interpretation of data on this increasingly pedagogical role. This changing role is perceived as moving away from and different to the parent helper role.

Looking to the past Harriet talks of ‘the old days’ when it was seen as ‘mums coming in to help’, suggesting that the role was initially seen as an extension of the parent helper role and this links to their biographies. Whilst all of the TAs are parents, most beginning involvement with the school as volunteers, when they talk about themselves as a TA Harriet and Linda distance themselves from this role. They use arguably derogatory remarks when explaining the work of parent volunteers as ‘only a bit of reading’ or ‘menial jobs’ and they talk of parent helpers as a ‘dogsbody’. Now that she is a TA, Avril suggests that she does see herself as different to a parent:

I started off as a parent helper. I was a nobody who has come in and is now valued in the school (A: 18).

Avril perceives a sense of superiority because as a TA she is ‘valued’, implying that she has more value as a paid member of staff than as a volunteer helper and she is an official member of the school team. These comments suggest a notion of a hierarchy within the school community, with parents viewed as ‘a nobody’ at the bottom with and TAs more valued in their role, which will be further discussed in Chapter 5. However, the comments also open up a contradiction in the role of a TA in that although they are all parents themselves, they are keen to distance themselves from a parent helper role.

In dismissing the contribution of parents to children’s learning in contrast to their own as a TA, these TAs are clear how they have become much more linked in facilitating teaching and learning in the classroom over the years and no longer do they work as a ‘general dogsbody.’ Linda wonders who now does the jobs she used to do which suggests a lack of volunteers in her school which could reflect the growth of paid work in schools for support staff, encouraged through workforce remodelling. This perception of the TA role being increasingly distant from a parent helper is linked to their increasingly pedagogical role explained through the data. Harriet and Linda say their work as a TA now includes preparation, input into planning and working more directly with children, so recognising that over the years they have moved to a much more pedagogical role. Both TAs use the word ‘responsibility’ in contrast to a ‘helper’ in describing their current role and all the TAs

77 interviewed provide examples of how they currently support learning together in their classrooms with teachers. In Foundation Stage Kate prepares creative activities, takes small groups, supports outdoor play and reads stories, whilst in Key Stages 1 and 2 TAs talk of supporting the teacher by taking small groups, supporting positive behaviour management, providing intervention and taking the whole class. Avril provides a description of this role:

In our school, the role is to support the children’s learning, not just educationally, but emotionally & socially. To support the teacher in delivering objectives, so you are supporting the teacher with their learning (A: 1).

She then adds more detail:

They have their 1-1 role where a pupil that’s been identified as maybe having a specific difficulty the TA will support that child, whether it’s literacy, numeracy to make sure the objectives are broken down into smaller pieces, discussed more. If it was a whole class TA, making sure that everybody is listening, so you are sort of behaviour management, poking & prodding where necessary, making children focussed (A: 2).

Avril confidently articulates the learning needs of children and uses vocabulary around learning, demonstrating an awareness of both the educational needs of the school the role she plays in meeting these. She is involved in the core subject lessons of literacy and numeracy and through the term ‘objectives’ is clear that the lesson has been planned with a clear learning purpose and whilst it has been planned by the teacher she can contribute through providing additional explanation and resources on an individual basis.

This leads to another issue within the changing role because Avril introduces the notion that support for learning can include more than academic work, because it can include emotional and behavioural support to help children learn. How this current role is enacted in the classroom and issues arising from it are the subject of the next chapter Policy into Practice, but the data show that the TAs have a clear awareness of their increasingly important role in supporting children’s learning and they perceive their role as supporting the whole child.

78 To summarise perceptions in data on the changing role, the TAs suggest they have an increasingly important pedagogical role with a clear awareness of how they support both teaching and learning and well-being. The TAs perceive this is a more integrated role than the previous role held by most participants, that of a parent helper. They point out that whilst they have responsibility for this support it is the teachers who take the lead in planning and teaching and the sense of a hierarchy begins to be introduced between parents, TAs and teachers. Finally I suggest that these points demonstrate that whilst the TAs describe their role as more complex than a ‘helper’, it is still perceived differently to that of both a parent and a teacher and this introduces two contradictions in their role:

 The participants are parents but perceive themselves as much more than a parent helper in the role of TA.

 They use the language of education and suggest that whilst they have a pedagogical role, they are ‘supporting’. In this way although they are not a teacher, much of the role they describe could be regarded as teaching.

This acknowledgement that TAs are not qualified teachers leads to the next section within National Frameworks, Qualifications and Training.