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Despite the growing number of teaching assistants (TAs) in schools worldwide, comparative international research on their professional lives and roles remains limited. Most are small-scale qualitative inquiries involving just two or three countries. While cross-country summaries exist, they are usually descriptive rather than systematic, making meaningful comparison difficult. One major barrier has been the absence of a shared framework for collecting and analysing data on TAs at scale.

That is where the International Teaching Assistant Research Network (ITARN) comes in. Formed in response to a ��ɫ���� Blog post calling for wider collaboration in this field, our network has developed the Comparative Framework on TAs (CoFTA). This draft framework is designed to structure the collection and analysis of comparative data about TAs’ professional lives and roles in schools.

Members of ITARN presented the framework for the first time at a symposium at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in Belgrade in September. The focus was on the formal and informal roles of TAs across five major education systems: the US, England, Shanghai (China), Germany and Ireland.

Each paper explored how policies and wider forces shape both the intended and the actual work of TAs in practice. The final paper brought these perspectives together, highlighting key similarities and differences across the contexts, and identifying the contextual factors and drivers that explain the misalignment between TAs’ formal role and their enacted role.

‘Teaching assistants are frequently deployed reactively … [which] places them in a “third space” between care and education.’

Six factors shaping TA roles

Our analysis of the evidence, which included empirical work published by ITARN members, identified six common factors influencing TA roles internationally. Five of these factors speak to policymakers and school leaders responsible for developing and implementing inclusion and frameworks to support TA deployment and their professional development. The sixth factor is an appeal to the research community.

1. Integration instead of inclusion. Too often, school students with additional needs are expected to adapt to existing systems and processes, with TAs supporting them to ‘fit in’ rather than schools adapting to their needs.
2. Filling the gap (or the ‘third space’). TAs are frequently deployed reactively, stepping in where there are shortages of teachers, special educators or therapeutic support. This places them in a ‘third space’ between care and education.
3. Lack of clear role profiles. Few countries have up-to-date national policies that define TAs’ formal responsibilities. Those that do can be advisory, not mandatory.
4. Limited training and supervision. While some practical guidance exists (notably in the UK), there is a widespread lack of evidence-based training and guidance for TAs.
5. Employment structures. TA employment varies widely: in England, Ireland and the US, TAs are school-based; while in Germany, they are employed by welfare organisations; and in China, often by parents.
6. Rapid growth, limited research. The number of TAs worldwide has grown substantially, and continues to grow. Research, however, remains patchy, and there is vanishingly little large-scale work at the national level, let alone the international level. Also, perspectives from the Global South are underrepresented.

What’s next for ITARN

The ECER symposium is just the start. ITARN is now preparing its first written outputs (including on CoFTA), bringing together the symposium papers and new contributions from a wider range of countries, including from the Global South. Our aim is to publish a collection that compares and contrasts international evidence and perspectives, and reflects on how social and cultural contexts shape TA roles.

Alongside this, we will continue to develop the CoFTA framework. Future work will expand its scope to include TA education and training, employment conditions, and school-level processes, such as planning, feedback, staff integration and professional belonging.

Teaching assistants play a critical role in education systems around the world. By developing common tools for comparison and creating space for new and diverse voices, ITARN is helping to move the field forward. The work begun at ECER 2025 marks an important step towards building a truly international understanding of the TA role.

We welcome new members! If you’d like to join ITARN, or learn more about our work, please email Run Tan at [email protected].