This guest post comes to us from Dr Dan Keith of the University of York’s Department of Politics and International Relations. This is the first in a five-part series that Dan and other colleagues in the department at York will be delivering, all on the important subject of training Graduate Teaching Assistants.
Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) play a key role in undergraduate education in Politics and International Relations in many universities. Often PhD students themselves, they bridge the gap between high-level research and the seminar room.
Yet, despite their vital role, training for GTAs remains a “missing conversation” in UK Politics departments. While the US and Canada have a more robust body of scholarship on this area of pedagogical development, the UK landscape has been remarkably quiet. This is despite research from Newcastle University which highlights that GTAs have mixed perceptions of the usefulness of training initiatives.
As Amanda Rosen’s insightful ALPs post highlighted there is a need to open debate on the purpose and delivery of GTA training in politics. For instance, where do we strike the balance in GTA training between an “on the job” approach and formalised training?
Alongside colleagues from the University of York, I am launching this five-part series to change that. We want to move beyond the “trial by fire” mentality and ask: How do we actually prepare our GTAs for the realities of the modern classroom?
The Core Questions
Throughout this series, we will be tackling the big questions facing GTA coordinators today:
- What is “Best Practice”? Which models of GTA training are UK Politics departments actually using?
- Where is the Scholarship? What are we asking GTAs to read to prepare them to teach Politics specifically?
- How is Training Evolving? Where is there room for innovation?
- Who are the Mentors? What challenges do those coordinating these programmes face?
Three Reasons Why GTA Training Can’t Be Ignored
1. Navigating the “Vague” Regulatory Landscape
In England, the Office for Students (OfS) mandates that everyone involved in teaching or supporting student learning and in assessment of student work must be appropriately qualified and supported. It is common for GTAs complete central university training (often accredited by Advance HE) to ensure they meet national standards for teaching. Departmental-level mentorship is a different story. The training GTAs experience in this formative stage of their pedagogical development can have a lasting influence on their teaching and has a meaningful impact on the experience of students.
However, institutional policies and handbooks for GTAs vary in terms of the extent to which they require Departmental or School level (disciplinary relevant) training and mentorship and often leave a great deal open to interpretation. This provides a context for wide variation in GTA training within politics that requires us to reflect on the ways in which we contribute to preparing and supporting the teaching of the new generation of politics educators. At present little is known in terms of who is involved in such local GTA training or what they are doing.
2. The Formative “Spark” for Academic Careers
We all have to start somewhere. The initial experience of leading a discussion on democratic theory or international conflict can be a daunting, memorable and potentially influential step in their academic careers of GTAs. GTAs often experience challenges including feelings of ‘imposter syndrome’, a perceived lack of disciplinary knowledge, unfamiliarity with marking expectations and in developing a professional identity.
Training is important in addressing these challenges through contributing to developing GTAs into scholars. Effective GTA development offers key benefits through promoting:
- Community & Belonging: It integrates PhD students into departments, which is especially vital for freelance or visiting GTAs who might otherwise feel isolated.
- Building Confidence: Supporting GTAs to master small-group seminars can provide them with opportunities to test out different pedagogical techniques and can help early-career academics to build the confidence to eventually tackle large-scale lectures and heavier teaching loads.
- Research Synergy: Teaching provides opportunities for researchers to synthesize complex ideas and to communicate them simply—supporting the development of these skills can directly translate into better writing and more rigorous research.
- Career Launchpad: Well trained and effective GTAs are often candidates for future academic roles in their departments. Investing in their training is an investment in their long-term employability.
- Promoting active learning: training can be an important opportunity to promote our mission to training educators in the use of effective pedagogy and to equip GTAs with tools for active learning.
3. Meeting the Needs of Modern Students
Today’s undergraduate cohorts in the UK have become more diverse. GTAs are often on the “front lines” teaching first-year students who are navigating the often difficult transition to university life. By equipping GTAs with effective pedagogical skills, we can help our students to develop the key academic and transferable skills they will need to succeed in their degrees and careers. The effectiveness of GTA training in politics has important implications for addressing many of the challenges faced in UK politics departments including those relating to inclusion, student engagement, student outcomes and in strengthening the experience of students.
Join the conversation
While our immediate focus is on the UK context, these issues are relevant more broadly. We want to hear from you: Why does GTA training matter in your department or school? How did training help you as a GTA?
In our next post, we’ll be diving into the different models of GTA training being used and the recommendations made by Politics educators.