Teaching assistants are an important resource in education. This unit looks at how this role has developed over time. You will also explore why this workforce is predominately female and why there is a marked under-representation of minority ethnic assistants. Finally you will explore what the future hold for this paraprofessional role. This study unit is just one of many that can be found on LearningSpace, part of OpenLearn, a collection of open educational resources from The Open University. Published in ePub 2.0.1 format, some feature such as audio, video and linked PDF are not supported by all ePub readers.