Martine van der Pluijm

64 Chapter 3 parental goals to support the child at school and at home (Anderson et al., 2017; Lusse et al., 2019b; Walker & Leg, 2018). These first three principles aim to align parents’ and teachers’ needs and resources for their joint interventions (cf., De la Rie, 2018; Meyers, Durlak, & Wandersman, 2012). The fourth design principle and tool (parent-child activity checklist) require teachers to regularly arrange interactive parent-child activities, e.g., talk and play activities (Reese et al., 2010a; Van der Pluijm et al., 2019). These activities need to be adapted to the resources and capabilities of lower-educated parents by creating a low threshold for lower-educated parents (e.g., use easy language, avoid written materials, encourage the use of the home language, and use themes that are familiar to parents), providing intentional support (e.g., explain activities in a simple way, explain how they impact children’s oral language development, use modeling) and using reciprocal communication strategies (e.g., share perspectives and beliefs, give positive feedback). The fifth design principle and corresponding tool (oral language strategy guidelines) require teachers to develop language strategies to support the parent-child interaction both in quantity and quality (Hoff, 2013; Van der Pluijm et al., 2019). Teachers are encouraged to first focus on strategies that stimulate the process of talking, such as stimulating child initiative, turn-taking, asking open-ended questions, and scaffolding by continuous sensitive behavior (Landry et al., 2008; Leung, Hernandez & Suskind, 2018). Next, teachers can explain strategies to expand children’s use of language, such as extending the use of words in a sentence to increase the quantity of language and supporting dialogues that require the use of decontextualized language (Reese et al., 2010a; Rowe, 2012; Van Kleeck, 2008). This study We conducted a multiple case study (Yin, 2018) to gain in-depth insights into how each teacher interacted with parents in different classroom contexts where we implemented the prototype, as a part of design research. This research aims to investigate how the prototype contributes to the establishment of SFPs with lower-educated parents in support of children’s language development and whether any modifications are needed. This prototype was developed based on a review of the literature (see Chapter 2; Van der Pluijm et al., 2019) and an extensive needs analysis (Van der Pluijm, 2014). The research was set up as a partnership model by involving teachers, parents, and school principals in an iterative process of collaborative learning in the authentic context of the schools (McKenney & Reeves, 2012) aimed at aligning these stakeholders’ perspectives and fostering ownership (Engeström, 2001; Kessels, 1999; Manz et al., 2010).