“Above and Beyond Any Other Teacher or Staff”: The Invisible Nourishment Work of Bilingual Support Staff

Abstract

This article explores the work of four high school bilingual support staff and how they went above and beyond their official job duties to support Latinx students. Drawing on eighteen months of ethnographic research in three high schools in Wisconsin, author Julissa Ventura shows how bilingual support staff nourished Latinx students by creating borderlands spaces, enacting pedagogies of acompañamiento, and taking on bridging work between school and students’ families. The study also highlights how bilingual support staff were often marginalized and unsupported in their work. Ventura makes clear that as schools continue to hire bilingual support staff in demographically changing schools, it is important to understand the multifaceted nature of their role and to center their expertise and knowledge in moving toward the nourishment of all students.