“I've never felt physically unsafe, but I've felt mentally and professionally unsafe”: Teaching Assistants' Affective Experiences with Safety and Student Incivility

The following study considered the affective experiences of graduate students employed as teaching assistants (TAs) at one Canadian university. Specifically, this work considered if TAs perceive their labour to be safe or unsafe, and why. It also examined the impact of campus culture and sexual violence on perceptions of safety. TAs hold unique perspectives of the institution, as they as both employees and students and there occupy a “liminal” space. This research examined how the unique institutional knowledge of TAs may be more effectively incorporated into institutional practices to improve campus safety for all members of the community. Utilizing a mixed method online survey, as well as semi-structured interviews, this study examined the myriad of experiences TAs may have while employed by the university. The results of this research indicated that TAs occupation of liminal spaces creates precarity and vulnerability, which places them are at risk of experiencing student incivility, harassment, and sexual and gender-based violence. The delegitimization of the TA role and a lack of institutional transparency around power increases TA vulnerability and encourages undergraduate violence towards TAs. Participants report feeling undertrained and unprepared to deal with student incivility and by extension create adaptative strategies to reduce friction with their students, usually in the form of unpaid emotional labour which causes undue harm and burnout. However, institutional support, both formal and informal, increased perceptions of safety for participants, demonstrating that cultural and social environments can be improved to more effectively prioritize the well-being of TAs.