Martine van der Pluijm

60 Chapter 3 ABSTRACT Parental support is critical for youngchildren’s language and literacydevelopment. It is important that teachers are aware of this parental role. Particularly in the case of lower- educated parents, teachers can improve their education when they engage parents in partnerships to support young children’s language development. These parents are often challenged to provide a rich home language environment with opportunities for interaction and using language. However, teachers have little experience in building partnerships with lower-educated parents. We designed a series of interventions to establish partnerships between school and lower- educated parents and to encourage rich parent-child interactions, based on the literature. In close collaboration with teachers, principals, and parents, we evaluated the application of these interventions using interviews, questionnaires, and classroom observations. We present the results of this formative evaluation and examine the implications for future practice in developing partnerships between school and lower-educated parents directed at young children’s language development. We focus on understanding how partnership approaches can contribute to tailoring interventions to teachers’ and lower-educated parents’ perspectives.