This study investigated instructional aides' relationships with teachers and parents and their status in schools, using Connelly and Clandinin's (1988) epistemology of "teacher as knower" as a way to frame their voices. A total of 17 predominantly female instructional aides from five elementary schools in three midwestern U.S. school districts completed interviews. Data analysis indicated that instructional aides had generally positive relationships with teachers. Some placed value on the freedom given to them by teachers, and other expressed strong appreciation for teachers' listening skills. Instructional aides' relationships with teachers varied by their location in the school and the level of supervision they experienced. Negative comments regarding relationships with teachers were rare and tended to pertain to direct and indirect comments by teachers, hostile school climates, and teachers' lack of appreciation of aides' talents and skills and lack of supervision. Aides gave mixed messages about their relationships with students' parents and families. Some had close relationships with parents and often served as babysitters for their students. Others placed the blame for students' problems on their families and rarely recognized the institutional factors that influenced students' academic success. (Contains 49 references.) (SM)