There is a little bit of 'ass' in every ASSistantship...

Posted On 3/16/2019 2:13:00 AM, 3Comments

Hi colleagues. I am currently an MA student at one of the universities in Turkey, Ankara. I wanted to share some of the injustices that we as teaching assistants face in the field. Already it was hard enough to qualify for a teaching assistantship position (exams, scores, interviews), however, once you get the position, things get even worse. In Turkey, being a TA means doing all kinds of work for your professors including grading the exams, proctorships, translations, writing grant proposals, doing the literature review, carrying documents around, posting signs on empty classroom doors at 5.30 am while everyone is asleep, getting a last minute e-mail at 3 am asking you to do something by 9 am, etc. All of this is fine but having to deal with a hostile environment where your professor frequently threatens you with taking away your assistantship is horrible. I can't wait to be done with my assistantship and defend my MA to set myself free from all these egoistic professors that make me do all the work and take all the credit by also treating me poorly.