Foreword: Fresh Air for Graduate Teaching Assistants

Abstract

In many universities, Graduate Teaching Assistants are as essential as the air on campus. They deliver thousands of hours of core teaching, balancing their own research passions and deadlines with tasks that include teaching, assessment and feedback, and student support. They contribute to vital strategic initiatives such as developing more inclusive curricula, improving online learning resources and enhancing staff-student partnerships. Simultaneously wearing the hats of a staff member and a research student, a teacher and a learner, an adviser and a supervisee, they frequently pull off the most challenging of roles, transforming themselves through sometimes stormy conditions from emergent experts in their field into versatile and effective scholarly educators.