Exploring parental views of the role of the TA and TA support for their children with EHCPs in mainstream primary schools

: an exploratory sequential study.

Abstract

Teaching assistants support inclusive education and their numbers continue to rise within schools in the United Kingdom. Research considering their deployment and impact (Blatchford et al., 2009; Webster & Blatchford, 2013) has indicated that children who have special educational needs and disabilities spend the most time with teaching assistants. However, spending more time with teaching assistants appears to impact negatively on academic progress, which has largely been associated with how teaching assistants are deployed. Parents of students with special educational needs and disabilities should be involved in decisions about their support. However, their voice is absent from literature researching the teaching assistant role.

This exploratory sequential mixed methods study explores parents’ views of the teaching assistant role, particularly in supporting their children with education, health and care plans in mainstream primary schools. Findings indicate parents share similar views to teaching assistants and students, feeling that teaching assistants should be supporting students to make academic, social and emotional progress. They also felt teaching assistants should be supporting physical and sensory needs and keeping their child safe in school. Parents also value the relationships teaching assistants build with students and themselves and are aware of systemic limitations to the role. Parents noted teaching assistant support should be individualised. There was no difference in parental understanding of the role based on how their child’s needs were categorised on their education, health and care plan.

A model has been developed showing parents’ understanding of the optimal teaching assistant role in helping their child develop so they are included in society. This has implications at different levels of the systems, for educational psychologists and other professionals. These implications call for schools and educational psychologists to increase collaboration with parents, as well as supporting teaching assistants to feel prepared for their role through appropriate training.

Date of Award	4 Feb 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Amanda J Gaulter (Supervisor) & Mary Stanley-Duke (Supervisor)