Conference Program

In the United States, teaching assistants (TAs) in public pre-kindergarten classrooms navigate unique positions when compared to K-12 teaching assistants; their roles and experiences remain understudied and misunderstood (Thompson et al., 2025). Early childhood teaching assistants are often the unseen backbone of the classroom and are an overlooked part of the early care and education workforce (Sosinsky & Gilliam, 2011). TAs most often share deep connections with the community, mirroring ethnic and racial backgrounds of the young children they serve and possessing personal associations to the neighborhoods where they teach (Cramer & Cappella, 2019; McLean et al., 2021; Thompson et al., 2025; Whitebook et al., 2006). In their daily practice, TAs take on more of the physical and mental work compared to certified teachers, as shifting responsibilities have moved them out of their prescribed roles into roles of direct instruction and behavior management. TAs are more likely to engage in forms of invisible labor (e.g., cleaning the classroom between activities, care tasks, driving the bus) for less compensation, less access to professional learning resources, and fewer opportunities for upward mobility than their counterparts (CSCCE, 2022; Press et al., 2024).

This presentation will highlight the roles teaching assistants play in early care and education environments in the United States, as evidenced through culturally responsive, community-based methods situated within two research-practice partnerships (RPPs): The Culturally Relevant Robotics: A Family and Teacher Partnership (CRRAFT) and the Trauma-Informed Preschool Studies Partnership (TIPS). Time-bound experiences of TAs across both RPPs will be explored through the implementation of two culturally relevant preschool robotics programs co-developed with educators and families. The narratives of nine teaching assistants will be amplified through this work. Using means of transformative qualitative analysis, semi-structured focus groups will be examined to understand their lived experiences. Focus groups for both partnerships took place over multiple time points during the implementation of the culturally responsive robotics programs. Ladson-Billings' (1995) culturally responsive pedagogy framework will be used to situate the voices and lived experiences of the assistant teachers.

This work amplifies teaching assistant voice-directed efforts across both RPPs and how democratic dialogue and shared meaning takes shape when assistant teachers are situated as equitable partners in the work. Our results suggest partnerships act as professional learning communities and are responsive spaces for all educators to engage in thought about their daily practice and forms of collective inquiry. TAs reflected on how they collectively navigated the early childhood classroom environment and structural systems that impacted them as educators. Preliminary results found that across both partnerships, there were times in which the assistant teachers felt capable of engaging in meaning-making and contributing to the democratic process. Results also demonstrated how TAs navigate daily practices and roles that shifted over time. This work is critical in understanding the intersection of structural and systemic factors that impact early childhood educators in the U.S., often impeding their work, limiting their participation, and reducing their ability to engage in the process of dialogic learning to better support young children’s learning and development.