Beyond Bilingual: Building Community for Multilingual Learners

In this special group episode, we sit down with Carmen Cisneros and Dr. Andrew Shanock for an open, reflective conversation about the growing need for community, training, and shared responsibility in supporting multilingual learners.

Together, the group unpacks the purpose behind the NASP Bilingual Interest Group (BIG) and the Multilingual Interest Group (MIG), two spaces dedicated to supporting school psychologists serving bilingual and multilingual students.

Listeners will hear about the innovative monthly MIG gatherings, ongoing book studies on bilingual literacy, the growing resource library housed within NASP, and why this work must belong to all school psychologists—not just those who identify as bilingual. The conversation also explores how separating bilingual and monolingual professional learning can unintentionally marginalize practitioners and limit growth across the field.

This episode is both a call to action and an invitation: to learn, to engage, and to build a stronger, more connected professional community in service of multilingual students and families.

Social Handles:

Christopher Ponce

• Instagram - @theschoolpsychguy
• LinkedIn - Christopher Ponce

Dr. Andrew Shanock

• Email - ashanock@yahoo.com

NASP Bilingual Interest Group

Music by: J. Andrew Collins