Teaching Assistants' Partial Roles and Working Areas in the Education of Socially Disadvantaged Students
Abstract
In the last two decades, there has been a significant increase in the number of teaching assistants as well as in the numbers of research papers focused on their work; however, the topic of teaching assistants working with socially disadvantaged students, who represent a very important student group in terms of numbers, still has not been very well explored. This study was therefore focused on (1) the frequency of use and (2) the evaluation of the importance of partial areas of the teaching assistants' work in supporting education of socially disadvantaged students.
The research was carried out through online questionnaires, involving 115 pedagogical staff members from schools with an above-average representation of socially disadvantaged students. In particular, the following areas of teacher assistants' practice proved to be important as well as oft en used: (a) supporting students in acquiring social competencies and adapting to the school environment,(b) supporting students in preparing for teaching, (c) interventions in student behavior and (d) supporting students via tutoring.
Respondents from schools where socially disadvantaged students make up the majority of the student population then further emphasized the involvement of assistants in organizing leisure activities for students and in communication with students' parents in an out-of-school environment. In conclusion, many diff erent roles of teaching assistants are proved to be very important parts of the overall educational support provided to socially disadvantaged students.