The Changing Nature of the Roles of Support Staff

Abstract

Increasing numbers of support staff are employed in schools to provide services for students identified as requiring extra support. The roles of these staff have changed as a result of a variety of factors, foremost the increased inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream settings. Compounding this increase is a re-evaluation of roles of staff in schools, shortages of qualified special education teachers, an increasing requirement of teachers to complete large quantities of administrative tasks, including paperwork (Lee, 2003), and the use of support staff, particularly teacher assistants (TAs) to relieve some of the work of teachers (Webster et al., 2010). This chapter will examine these factors and explore the resulting changes in roles and considerations for teachers when working with support staff.

Citation

Chambers, D. (2015), "The Changing Nature of the Roles of Support Staff", Working with Teaching Assistants and Other Support Staff for Inclusive Education (International Perspectives on Inclusive Education, Vol. 4), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 3-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-363620150000004001