Exploring Graduate Teaching Assistants in the Virtual Space During COVID-19 Using the Cultural Historical Activity Theory Perspective

Abstract

Graduate teaching assistants^[1] (GTAs) play an indispensable role in higher education, in particular in undergraduate courses. In higher education, GTAs take on two identities simultaneously: firstly as postgraduate students and the secondly as lecturers (Muzaka, 2009). A literature review showed that the roles and responsibilities of GTAs might not be clearly defined, resulting in role ambiguity, which may be compounded by the current COVID-19 pandemic (Youde, 2020; Gardner & Parrish, 2019; Benjamin, 2020). In this paper, the authors explore the roles, responsibilities, and challenges of GTAs at a University of Technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative case study collected data using interviews conducted with ten GTAs, who provided support to first-year engineering, mathematics, and physics lecturers and students. Our data analysis confirmed the adaptation of the GTAs' role and the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, which presented many benefits and contradictions. The major findings of this study revealed that digital tools such as technology for example writing devices, Learning Management System (LMS) Blackboard, and WebAssign by publisher Cengage^[2] play a vital role in students' support and performance. Despite the use and some challenges with digital tools, our participant GTAs expressed many contradictions (tensions) about their engagement with students and lecturers, and adaptations to the COVID-19 pandemic context.

^[1] Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) are postgraduate research students who support academic and faculty staff members with their teaching responsibility.

^[2] WebAssign is an online education platform built by educators that provides affordable tools to empower confident students in a virtual learning environment.