Parents in (inter)action

Abstract

"The difficulty of communication between teachers and non-Dutch speaking parents of children in primary school, and its possible impact on the educational achievement of these children inspired the Centre for Language and Education to develop the project ‘Parents in (inter)action’. The aim of this project is to optimise the communication between school and parents and to increase the involvement of the parents in their children’s school. The key principles of the project were: Successful communication with immigrant parents is a shared responsibility of both the primary school and the parents, not of the parents alone. Knowledge of the Dutch language should not be a preliminary condition for participation in the school community; however, participation provides the ideal context in which to learn Dutch. One has to stimulate participation in the school community by providing a ‘safe environment’ where non-Dutch speaking parents can participate (CTO & Steunpunt, 2007; De Niel et al., 2008)"