Voices From The Classroom : Perceptions and experiences of teaching assistants in Primary, Secondary and Special Schools

Teaching assistants,as 'para-professionals', make up a significant percentage of the total school workforce. This research gave voice to teaching assistants, exploring their perceptions and experiences, in terms of their backgrounds, roles and responsibilities, training, support from their schools whilst training, their aspirations and the progression routes available to them. A small-scale phenomenological study approach was adopted, aimed to interpret and explain human actions and thought through descriptions, capturing first person accounts.