Joanna Rankin is a third-year doctoral student at the University of Oxford’s Department of Education. Her research, in collaboration with Portsmouth EMAS, focuses on the support given by Bilingual Learning Assistants to multilingual pupils learning in English schools. It uses mixed methods to investigate the nature and impact of Assistants’ support and is funded by an ESRC Grand Union DTP studentship. Before her doctorate, Joanna taught at international schools in China, Brazil and Italy, as well as at schools in the UK.