The role of the bilingual teaching assistant: Alternative visions for bilingual support in the primary years

This article, a narrative inquiry, documents my professional learning as an educator through sustained research into the role of the bilingual teaching assistant over a period of 30 years from the late 1970s to the year 2000 in England as a teacher and today as a teacher educator in the UAE. It also represents a data-based analysis of the role of the bilingual teaching assistant and draws on three data sets collected through observational analysis, open-ended interviews, and focus groups. It uses the developing nature of the role of the bilingual assistant to reflect on how beliefs affect practice supported by the theoretical and research literature. Learning from the experience in England, this inquiry uncovers the need to explore notions of the role of the bilingual teaching assistant through teacher education in the UAE and to develop alternative visions for bilingual support through practice.