Who is supporting who? Re-imagining Graduate Teaching Assistant training and support in a School of Environmental Sciences

Despite the growing use of postgraduate research students as Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) within UK higher education institutes, challenges remain in how to best support these students. This study reports on the GTA experience within a School of Environmental Sciences at a research-intensive UK university. Specifically, the study explores GTA training opportunities and support provision. Findings were drawn from surveys of GTAs and academic staff. Responses revealed that whilst GTAs made a wide range of valuable contributions to teaching, they and academic staff were often unsure or unaware of (i) their individual responsibilities, and/or (ii) development opportunities already available. These barriers have the potential to influence GTAs’ confidence in their ability to teach and can reduce their sense of identity within the school. Based on these findings, suggested areas for action are discussed in a bid to further embed good practice in the use of GTAs within the school. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/ .