**1. Introduction**

Since the 1990s Teaching Assistants (TAs\*) have played an increasingly important role in both mainstream and special education in England. However, there was originally some confusion over their roles in schools. This confusion was highlighted by Balshaw [1], who identified early perceptions of TAs as: 'piggies in the middle ….left in no-man's land' …dogsbodies …[or worse still] a spy in the classroom [or] an overgrown pupil' (1999:12). Since those early days, the number of TAs in the English workforce has grown steadily, from 24,000 full time equivalent (FTE) posts in 1997 Balshaw [1] to 221, 481 in 2010 and 271, 370 in 2020 [2]. The chances are, therefore, that newlyqualified teachers (NQT) will find themselves working in a classroom alongside one or more of these paraprofessionals, so it is vital that the working collaborations

between teachers and TAs are positive, productive, and mutually respectful experiences for both parties and ultimately help foster inclusive classrooms for all learners, especially those with learning differences such as dyslexia. This chapter explains the development of the various dimensions of the TA role, explores some of the challenges that TA/teacher collaborations might encounter and draws upon the latest research evidence about maximising the potential benefits of joint working in the classroom, with the aim of better supporting dyslexic students. In doing so, I will also draw upon my own research and professional experiences as a classroom teacher, dyslexia-specialist teacher, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo), and teacher-educator. This chapter also draws upon models of disability and neurodiversity in framing how schools need to consider dyslexia support and TAs' roles within those processes in the dyslexia-friendly school.

#### **2. The development of the TA role**

As Balshaw's quotation above suggests, there was not only confusion in schools over the TA role but also their status. Balshaw [1] noted that the early deployment of TAs in schools was largely to fill ancillary roles, but their brief soon widened to include much more of a learning support role, both within the classroom and withdrawing individual and small groups of students to tackle programmes of extra help for those who had slipped behind in their learning: in particular, extra literacy support; and this included many of those identified with dyslexic-type difficulties. Much of this was driven by the then government's drive to remodel the teaching workforce [3].

Initially, there was suspicion from some mainstream teachers, about the presence of TAs in their lessons. Teachers were traditionally used to their classroom being their own private domain. Nor, as Sebba and Sachdev [4] noted, had they routinely had training in *how* to work with TAs. There were also fears that TAs were not just present in their classrooms but perhaps judging their performance. Many mainstream teachers, faced with the demands of developing more inclusive teaching for the diversity of learners in their classes, in response to a series of government-led Special Educational Needs Codes of Practice in England [5–7], have often felt that they were potentially facing demands for which they felt ill-equipped and that they might be under scrutiny where this lack of confidence was exposed [8]. For their own part, many TAs felt that they were being thrown into teaching and learning situations for which they has little or no training, including, supporting students with dyslexia [9] and that they, in turn, would be judged as inadequate by the classroom teachers.

In response to the confusion and misgivings reported above, the English government established a set of national professional standards for TAs [10] linked to the workforce remodelling drive, and a generic package of induction training for TAs was rolled out to schools [e.g. 11]. In addition to this, a range of other training courses at Levels 2 and 3 have been developed over the last 15 years by various professional development providers, sometimes leading to the Level 4 Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) qualification, and Level 5 Foundation Degrees in Learning Support, which many TAs have taken advantage of and value [12]. However, access to such training opportunities has been, according to Hussart and Croucher [13], somewhat unsystematic and many TAs have reported that, after initial induction training packages, access to further training has sometimes been hard to get [14]. In terms of

*Perspective Chapter: Learning to Work Smarter with Teaching Assistants to Develop… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.107044*

specific dyslexia training for TAs, the British Dyslexia Association (BDA) has developed the Accredited Learning Support Assistant (ALSA) qualification, offered as a Level 4, 5 or 6 course [15].
