High needs, low profiles: Unlocking the professional identify of teaching assistants

Perspective Article

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Published on: February 17, 2025

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LAURA PAGE, DIRECTOR AND SEND CONSULTANT, SCHOOLS SUPPORTED, UK Since the Plowden Report (1967) recommended teacher ‘aides’ in primary schools, the role of teaching assistants (TAs) has been consistently present but inconsistently understood. The counterintuitive finding of Blatchford et al.’s DISS (deployment and impact of support staff in schools) research (2009), indicating that increased time with TAs correlated with worse outcomes, has influenced recommendations that emphasise teacher interaction alongside well-implemented interventions (Davies and Henderson, 2020). This perspective piece, including interviews with voices from across the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) landscape, explores how focusing solely on that finding might overlook the importance of conceptualising TAs as professionals. It also acknowledges that the professional life of TAs is systemically and situationally driven (Webster et al., 2020) and asks whether the sector’s evolved unde

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High needs, low profiles: Unlocking the professional identify of teaching assistants

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