Classroom assistants: self-perceptions and the professionalism struggle

Authors

• Teppo Eskelinen Jyväskylän yliopisto
• Pia Lundbom

Abstract

The authors discuss the self-perceptions of classroom assistants in the context of fiscal contraction. The aim is to analyse the tensions between the steady institutionalisation of the profession and the current austerity-era pressure to classify classroom assistants as an auxiliary function in schools. In particular, the current contraction in municipal finances has left classroom assistants in a highly precarious situation, marking a turn in the history of the profession. This turn is also reflected in their identities, producing a conflict between professional self-perceptions and the austerity-policy push to treat the profession as merely an additional resource available for schools in positive budget situations. Beyond this conflict, the authors find that the self-perceptions of classroom assistants extend to roles that are not dictated directly by any governmental norms, but which the profession has largely created for itself. Partly because of such roles, classroom assistants might turn out be indispensable for schools in a way that cannot be captured by the resource interpretation. The material analysed in the article is comprised of interviews and survey data.