Martine van der Pluijm

63 Creating partnerships – a formative evaluation Conceptual framework for the prototype to establish SFPs in support of young children’s language development The prototype draws upon the assumption that families are the most important domain where young children acquire language (Bronfenbrenner, 1977; 1992; Epstein, 1987) and is built on existing theory on SFPs (Epstein, 1992; Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2005; Lusse, 2013; Sheridan et al., 2019) and the experiences from extensive fieldwork with teachers and parents (Van der Pluijm, 2014). It consists of a whole classroom approach, enabling teachers to adapt their approach to lower-educated parents. Based on the literature (Boyce et al., 2010; Epstein & Sanders, 2006; Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2005; Landry, Smith, Swank, & Gutentag, 2008, Lusse, 2013; Reese et al., 2010a; Sheridan et al., 2011), we identified five design principles for building SFPs with lower- education parents in support of their children’s language development: (1) Assess the HLE of families, (2) Establish a school policy that includes intentional SFP procedures, (3) Establish reciprocal relationships, (4) Arrange interactive parent-child activities, (5) Stimulate language strategies to support parental interaction with the child. These design principles form the skeleton of the program and are complemented by intended teacher behavior and tools for teachers. The first design principle and corresponding tool (class inventory list) require teachers to explore families’ HLE to improve their understanding of families’ needs and resources on which they can base their interventions (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2005; Hutchins et al., 2013). Teachers gain understanding if they have insight into parents’ abilities (e.g., educational levels, literacy skills, language proficiency), learn about their preferred family activities (e.g., playing games, shared reading, or other family interests), routines (e.g., having meals or walking to school) and how parents usually interact with their child (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992; Van der Pluijm et al., 2019). The second design principle and tool (SFP procedural guidelines) require teachers to critically review their existing procedures with parents (e.g., parent-teacher conferences to discuss child progress, collective parent meetings) and make an action plan with procedures to build SFPs in line with parental resources (Epstein & Sanders, 2006; Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2005). Teachers and their colleagues are encouraged to translate these procedures to school policy to establish coherence at the school level (Epstein, 2013; Epstein & Van Voorhis, 2012). The third design principle and corresponding tool (reciprocal communication guidelines) require teachers to ensure that all parents feel invited and are recognized as equal partners (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2005; Lusse, 2013; Manz et al., 2010; Sheridan et al., 2019). Teachers are stimulated to be open to parents, value parents’ perspectives, and build on parents’ interests and capacities (Scott et al., 2012; Van Regenmortel, 2009). They are encouraged to use reciprocal communication strategies during their communication with parents and align teachers’ and