Teaching assistant is becoming increasingly important
The teaching assistant is a fixed, familiar face for children, teachers and parents. But are they valued? Support staff often lack appreciation, a salary that does justice to - due to the teacher shortage - taking care of entire classes and their own workplace.
Image: Pixabay
Recently, Linda, who has worked as a teaching assistant for years, had to explain difficult sums to a grade 3 child. She had to repeat her explanation six times. Not because the boy didn't understand. Or because her explanation was so bad. But because they were constantly interrupted by incoming and outgoing teachers. Because Linda was in the team room with her student. Due to lack of space. And that is partly corona-related, but partly also permanent.
“I miss my own workplace,” she says. “The teachers and masters have their own room, where all their material is, but for the teaching assistant, their own workplace is not even discussed. I am fed up with that, so I cannot get everything out of the children. We hop from office to classroom to work room and carry all our things with us. ”
That is, says Linda, because she is seen as 'just' the teaching assistant. “I have very nice colleagues, the atmosphere is good. But sometimes I doubt whether the importance of our work is recognized. Also by parents: at the end of the school year I see teachers and masters going home with bags full of thank-you presents, and I am left empty-handed. It's not about those presents, it's about the principle. We need to get rid of our reputation that we are only there to copy. ”
Cartoon: Wim Stevenhagen
An informal call in a Facebook group where teaching assistants gather shows that many assistants are engaged in appreciation. Depending on the school where they work and the parents with whom the supporters deal. 'I don't feel undervalued, I feel important at work, I get appreciated and I'm not used for the rotten jobs,' writes teaching assistant Wendy. Colleague Bryan writes: "The class teachers are not above me, we are all equal." And Anita says she also feels appreciated by her colleagues: "But there are still teachers and parents who look down on teaching assistants."
Cora also says this: 'Unfortunately, I notice that it is often assumed that we are good at delivering coffee, while we can do so much more than that. I'm not saying I don't want to do it, but it is often thought, ah, she will. '
I think the salary is sadly low for what we do
Gwen, who works at a primary school in Limburg, experienced that her school was very searching. When she came in a year and a half ago, she was the first teaching assistant the school has ever had. “Colleagues and management were not sure what to do with me,” she says. So yes: in those first weeks there were some small chores on her account so that she 'had something to do'. “But now that I have been involved for a while, I notice that I am increasingly a full-fledged teaching assistant. It was just a matter of getting used to. I am really part of the team, everyone just calls me a teacher, including the parents, and that feels very good. ”
Yet sometimes she still notice a difference and that hurts a bit. “I recently had a sore throat. All teachers are allowed to take a quick test, not me, I am not entitled to it, because I do not have my own class. But in the meantime, the teaching assistant has to fill in if a teacher drops out. ”
Cartoon: Wim Stevenhagen
It is something that many teaching assistants, including in the Facebook group, are concerned about. Or just say: angry. That they often have to take care of a class, but that the salary is not there. "I can't believe we get paid so little," someone says. And: 'I think the salary is very low for what we do.'
Some argue: the salary must be increased. Others think: it should stay as it is, because we have less responsibility, but don't throw ourselves in front of the class if a teacher drops out. “It's crooked now,” says Gwen. “I love to take care of a class, but I don't get any compensation for it. That must be rectified. ”
Indispensable
In 2018, the Ministry of Education commissioned ResearchNed to conduct a survey into the satisfaction of teaching assistants with their current position. 60 percent of the teaching assistants indicated that they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their salary. The workload could also be lower, they wanted more clarity about the range of tasks and many teaching assistants indicated that they wanted their own workplace.
“The teaching assistant has not yet found his or her place in the Netherlands,” says Anje de Vries, trainer of teacher support staff at Bureau Meesterschap. “They are also relatively new in our education. Twenty, thirty years ago, education focused on classroom systems and the keywords behavior, flattery and cleanliness. Now the norm has shifted: education focuses on ownership, development and collaboration. You can no longer learn that in classroom systems. "
Image: Wim Stevenhagen
And that is why, says De Vries, the teaching assistant has become increasingly important in mainstream education in the Netherlands. “The teacher can no longer do it alone. Now that there must be more room for the individual, self-direction, personal responsibility and working in small groups, an extra pair of hands and eyes is needed. ” Some schools have to get used to this.
Parent discussions
“Teaching assistants often do not really have a clear position or range of tasks yet,” says Marc Neerhof, teacher at the ROC in Amsterdam on the Teaching Assistant course. "And they could get a little more appreciation." That appreciation is also in the salary, Neerhof thinks. “It doesn't have to be aligned with a teacher, because let's face it: a teaching assistant is more likely to close the door behind him at five o'clock. Even if the teacher still has parent meetings in the evening. But I do see a lot of students scared: will this be my salary? "
He has to add that many students see it as a stepping stone to the teacher training college, which does not help the reputation of the teaching assistant either. “If the salary were higher, perhaps fewer people would want to make that step. There are plenty of people who are passionate about being a teaching assistant all their lives. They are then a beacon for the school and for the vulnerable students. ”
Still, schools must be careful that the teaching assistant is used as a remedial teacher, says De Vries. “They don't have the pedagogical and didactic knowledge for that. But there is still a lot in between teaching and copying. Regular schools can take an example from special education in that sense. ”
Because there it 'has been going well for a long time', Sharona knows. For years she worked as a teacher in special education in Brabant, at various schools, including for blind and partially sighted people. “There it is just the rule that you get an assistant,” she says. “And everyone in primary education immediately knows the added value of such a teaching assistant. Such a person is very valuable for the quality of your lessons and for the supervision of children and groups. ”
Often it is only the children who really see the teaching assistant as a teacher
In primary education, Sharona sometimes saw colleagues struggling: how to deal with an assistant? Have the dishwasher cleaned out? Have part of the lesson taken over? "Actually, it is often only the children who really see them as teacher or master." That's why Sharona wrote a blog earlier in which she wondered where the striking teaching assistants were, in recent years? “They have to speak up. And it is time that we started to see in education what the quality of an assistant is, and how we can use it. "
Perhaps it would be a good idea to set up a 'Teaching Assistant Day', suggests assistant trainer Marc Neerhof. And what can also help: more opportunities for specialization. “There are dozens of post-graduate courses that teachers can and can do, but as an assistant you often remain a bit on the surface. Why not also offer post MBO courses? So that you can immerse yourself in a subject, also as an assistant, and that way make yourself indispensable. ”
Image: Wim Stevenhagen
Linda is now doing an NT2 training. “It was a real search for courses for teaching assistants,” she says. "They are rare." What Linda also does is to take the initiative herself. “I am now looking for contact with the parents. There are schools that would rather not have that, but my school is fine with it. And I notice that it works: parents see that I work with their children, and that their child gets extra attention from me. ”
Taking your own initiative is also mentioned a few times in the facebook group. Maddy writes: 'I don't wait, but propose things myself. Always in consultation with the teacher, then you come a long way. ' She also works with Beebot, a robot with which children learn to calculate, among other things. 'I bought myself, but that also means I always have access to the material I need.'
They are the hands we cannot do without
A positive development, says De Vries, is that school boards had to review the functions of educational support staff before 1 November this year, in terms of scales and job descriptions. In order to equalize financial and substantive differences: “That's a good start. That way, the teaching assistant's position is clearer. We need to understand that assistants are neither order keepers nor dishwasher cleaners. They are the hands that we cannot afford to miss. ”
This article appeared in January's Education Magazine. The Education Magazine in your mail every month? Become a member!
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