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The world of the primary school
The world of the primary school

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4.2 Assisting, supporting and teaching

The idea that teaching assistants ‘assist’ teachers and ‘support’ learning has been the official view of a teaching assistant’s role for a long time, and many policymakers continue to regard their work in this way. Suggesting that teaching assistants teach children has been taboo, but this appears to be changing. In England and Wales, Higher Level Teaching Assistants (HLTAs) were originally meant to ‘cover’ lessons that were previously planned by teachers, but there is reason to think that many are teaching, not least because covering invariably involves interaction with children, and that potentially moves an adult into a teaching relationship (Hancock et al., 2010; Sendorek, 2009). Dillow (2010) suggests that teaching assistants are involved in jobs that ‘look like teaching’ (p. 8), as well as in more traditional assisting tasks. Blatchford et al. (2012) state that if teaching assistants have a ‘direct pedagogical, instructional relationship with pupils’ (p. 140), they are to all intents teaching.

Although, in theory, ‘assisting’ marks out a conceptual distinction between teachers and assistants, in practice this is very difficult to maintain. This is because the effect of what adults do with children in schools is, to a considerable degree, determined by children’s reactions to the adults who work with them. Teaching is not something that can be done ‘to’ children; to be successful, it is an act that needs their involvement – something that is done ‘with’ them. Children are therefore always agents in the teaching enterprise. It therefore follows that a teaching assistant could conceivably, from a child’s perspective, teach more effectively than a teacher.