Martine van der Pluijm

95 How can teachers build partnerships? learning activities that resolve this impasse and motivate them to engage parents in goal directed partnerships (Epstein & Sanders, 2006; Hoover-Dempsey, Walker, Jones & Reed, 2002; Waddel, 2013; Walker, 2019). Since oral language development of young children is a key factor in literacy development (Sénéchal & Lefevre, 2002; Storch &Whitehurst, 2002), and families and schools are the two most important domains for young children’s acquisition of language (Bronfenbrenner, 1977; 1992; Epstein, 1987), schools should set up SFPs in support of children’s oral language development (Sheridan, Knoche, & White, 2019). This is particularly important for children of lower-educated parents who are disadvantaged in their school careers as they have fewer opportunities to use and understand language (Goodall & Vorhaus, 2011; Hoff, 2013). To contribute to such SFPs, we designed the school-based At Home in Language (AHL) program. This program aims to prepare teachers to tailor their interventions to the needs and resources of lower-educated families and to enhance teacher motivation to engage parents as an important part of their work as teachers. In a review study, we detected effective elements of activities and strategies for support of lower-educated parents’ oral interactions with their children (see Chapter 2; Van der Pluijm et al., 2019). We involved teachers and parents in a pilot study to examine how design principles for interventions could be adapted to teachers’ and parents’ needs (see Chapter 3). Based on these studies, we developed and implemented the AHL program. Theoretical framework for the program Research has shown that teachers’ inviting behavior is crucial for parents’ decisions to become actively engaged (Anderson & Minke, 2007; Deslandes & Bertrand, 2005; Walker, Ice, Hoover- Dempsey, & Sandler, 2011). Therefore, the professional development of teachers to initiate partnerships is central to AHL. Teachers are motivated to develop their skills when their investments lead to practical solutions that they can use immediately (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2002) and when their need for autonomy, relatedness, and competence are acknowledged (De Brabander & Martens, 2018; Deci & Ryan, 2000). Against this background, we designed a step- by-step guide that teachers can use to work with parents at school, accompanied by learning activities that support teachers to adhere to the program principles. Step-by-step guide We identified seven steps (see Figure 4.1) that guide teachers to develop SFPs to support children’s oral language development in their classrooms, involving all parents and children (whole classroom approach). Each step requires teachers to explore perspectives that can be used to adapt their behavior to the needs and resources of parents in their classroom in line with differentiated classroom theory that aims to adapt child education to the specific needs of children (Tomlinson et al., 2003).