A Shackled Heart: Teacher Aides’ Experience of Supporting Students With High Needs in Regular Classes
type: CreativeWork
description: This study asked the question “What is the lived experience of teacher aides supporting students with high needs?” The study design included interviews of seven teacher aides, to elicit their experience of supporting students identified as requiring significant ongoing resourcing to access the curriculum. All participants supported students in primary schools for more than half the day. Data analysis was informed by phenomenology. Van Manen’s (1990) life-world existentials were used to guide reflection, with notions from Heidegger (1962) and Levinas (1998) used to provide further understanding. The findings of this study reveal that teacher aides begin their journey supporting students unprepared for the responsibility. As they find themselves thrown in to being-in-the-world of school, feeling at home in the classroom is dependent on feeling welcomed, and included within class and school practices, and impacts on strategies teacher aides use to support the student. These include how they use space and encourage independence. As they experience journeying with the student through their school years, they often travel out of synch with others in the class. The resultant sense of isolation creates a need to redefine their student’s itinerary. Their journey often feels unsupported, with most support coming from families who have similar experience of caring for the student. However crossing boundaries into the student’s home life means they often find themselves becoming the go-between, communicating information between school and home. These teacher aides, when meeting their student in their vulnerability starting school, found themselves unexpectedly called towards commitment to the student. Spending a considerable part of the day with the student, providing care for safety, behaviour and self-care, a special relationship develops between the teacher aide and student. The nature of this relationship is brought to light. As they embody experiences of the student as the…
abstract: This study asked the question “What is the lived experience of teacher aides supporting students with high needs?” The study design included interviews of seven teacher aides, to elicit their experience of supporting students identified as requiring significant ongoing resourcing to access the curriculum. All participants supported students in primary schools for more than half the day. Data analysis was informed by phenomenology. Van Manen’s (1990) life-world existentials were used to guide reflection, with notions from Heidegger (1962) and Levinas (1998) used to provide further understanding. The findings of this study reveal that teacher aides begin their journey supporting students unprepared for the responsibility. As they find themselves thrown in to being-in-the-world of school, feeling at home in the classroom is dependent on feeling welcomed, and included within class and school practices, and impacts on strategies teacher aides use to support the student. These include how they use space and encourage independence. As they experience journeying with the student through their school years, they often travel out of synch with others in the class. The resultant sense of isolation creates a need to redefine their student’s itinerary. Their journey often feels unsupported, with most support coming from families who have similar experience of caring for the student. However crossing boundaries into the student’s home life means they often find themselves becoming the go-between, communicating information between school and home. These teacher aides, when meeting their student in their vulnerability starting school, found themselves unexpectedly called towards commitment to the student. Spending a considerable part of the day with the student, providing care for safety, behaviour and self-care, a special relationship develops between the teacher aide and student. The nature of this relationship is brought to light. As they embody experiences of the student as the…
author: Tutty, Chris
keywords: Teachers' assistants in New Zealand, Mainstreaming in education in New Zealand, Services for school children in New Zealand
date published: 2003
date modified: 2026-07-27T18:46:20Z
provider: AUT University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: AUT University