This paper considers issues around identity for teaching assistants (TAs) in mainstream English primary schools. We discuss the concomitant problems TAs experience around role definition and role-creep as well as the challenges inherent in equivocally defining their evolving and flexible role. We used key themes drawn from the literature…

The Learning Assistant (LA) program is a near-peer teaching model with three key components: (i) reevaluation of curriculum and lesson design to incorporate undergraduate LAs as a central part of the course; (ii) a seminar attended by first-time LAs, where they learn about education theory; and (iii) weekly meetings in which LAs and course…

In this paper, we describe our approach to mentoring Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) as teaching and learning protégés within the context of a challenging undergraduate honours thesis course. An approach to mentoring GTAs in this multifaceted course is outlined, while providing practical strategies that expose GTAs to various aspects of the…

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are important partners in practical chemistry teaching and learning, but they rarely receive direct instruction in inclusive teaching practices and equality, diversity, and inclusion principles. Here we describe the design, delivery, and evaluation of a workshop, along with the resources developed, to support…

This personal experience narrative details the dissonances I experienced conducting my ethnographic dissertation study as a graduate teaching assistant (GTA) studying GTA teaching development. These dissonances arose due to my recognition and scrutinization of the blatant transmission of neoliberal ideology in my research setting ("Cardinal…

Transnational policy discourses shape teacher professionalism through discursive patterns in policy initiatives from the global policy actor, OECD. The policy idea of 'the teacher assistant' has emerged through discourses on teacher professionalism, spurring ambiguities regarding what the policy idea is and ought to be in Sweden. The aim of this…

This chapter presents the lived experience of 10 doctoral students and recent graduates from a North American University, who like graduate students elsewhere, have faced upstream battles against excessive faculty entitlement. The six sections of this chapter, each by different authors, explore how entitlement in the University, is experienced…

In January of 2023, Georgia State University proposed a policy stating that, if graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) taught courses that reported grades of Ds, Fs, or withdrawals (DFW) at a rate of twenty percent or higher, GTAs would be required to complete a course on how to teach college students before they could resume their job as a teaching…

Writing studies and writing center scholars have recently focused much- needed attention on how graduate student writers are taught, mentored, and supported. This scholarship also points to a persistent and stubborn conundrum: Graduate students must write their way into disciplinary belonging, yet most advisors lack a language for, or even…

A Science Teaching Assistant (TA) Programme, at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), focused on preparing promising lecturers. A key component of this programme was the contribution by the Centre for Innovative Education and Communication Technologies (CIECT), which promoted the pedagogical adoption of eTools to assist development of Science…

Undergraduate teaching assistant (UTA) programs pair students with faculty to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom. These programs have the potential to offer a high-impact experience (Kuh, 2008); students feel more connected to learning when meaningfully engaged. UTAs develop important relationships with faculty mentors, hone…

This essay argues that international teaching assistants (ITAs) bring to their writing and teaching of writing a perspective shaped by translation. They occupy intercultural spaces that make them acutely sensitive to complexities of language, and by extension, to the struggle to write well. Their struggle to write across languages and cultures can…

Having the opportunity to teach is a valuable experience to those starting out in the world of academia. In this article, the authors cast a reflective lens on their experiences of teaching and their participation in a structured programme York Learning and Teaching Award (YLTA), designed for new and aspiring academics and working towards becoming…

The nation's oldest labor laws give employees the fundamental rights to organize and join a union. An increasing number of graduate student workers across the country are seeking to exercise these rights at the private universities where they work while they pursue their education. During the 2011-2012 school year, 12.1 percent of all graduate…

Graduate student teaching assistants from underrepresented groups may provide salient role models and enhanced instruction to minority students in STEM fields. We explore minority student-TA interactions in an important course in the sciences and STEM -- introductory chemistry labs -- at a large public university. The uncommon assignment method of…