The classroom deployment of teaching assistants in England: a critical review of literature from 2010 to 2020

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of a critical literature review that focusses on the classroom deployment of teaching assistants (TAs) in England between 2010 and 2020, a period marked by an upward trend in the number of these adults in school workforces internationally. The study utilises the theory of practice architectures (Kemmis, Wilkinson, et al. [2014]. Changing practices, changing education. Springer Singapore) to reconceptualise this literature, using this framework to draw a distinction between an epistemological and an ontological view of practices. A process of systematic review was undertaken, with 20 peer-reviewed articles retained for critical scrutiny against this framework. Findings show how influential studies conducted over this period have developed a comprehensive view of these practices in England. Yet, within this view of TA deployment there are areas of complexity which deserve further attention from researchers. The remaining literature is used to highlight these areas through the cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political architectures that serve to prefigure the ways in which these practices unfold. It is concluded that, whilst it is useful for research to establish models of practice that codify effective features of TA support, this should be supplemented by methodologically and theoretically diverse studies which can chart how these models unfold in relation to specific groups of people and the features encountered at local sites.