For children’s academic and socio-emotional development, cooperation between teachers and parents is supportive (Bakker et al., 2013; Epstein, 2020).  Governments therefore encourage teachers to invest in Family-School Partnerships (Thompson et al., 2018). Family-School Partnerships (FSP) are defined as "child-focused approaches, wherein families and professionals cooperate, coordinate, and collaborate to enhance opportunities and success for children and adolescents across social, emotional, behavioral, and academic domains" (Sheridan & Kim, 2015, p.5). 

Building Family-School Partnerships requires specific teacher competencies (Bakker et al., 2013; Epstein, 2020; Willemse et al., 2017), especially in the education of newcomers. When working together with newcomer parents, teachers experience specific challenges, such as different language practices, cultural identities, and expectations regarding mutual responsibilities (Antony-Newman, 2017; Bakker et al., 2013; McWayne et al., 2019). These experiences stress the need for further professional development.

Research on the difficulties teachers experience in establishing FSP in multilingual contexts reveal that they attribute the difficulties to linguistic, cultural, attitudinal, practical, socio-economic and political factors (Antony-Newman, 2019; Bakker et al., 2013; Goedhart et al., 2024). Researchers call for more research into successful practices to move beyond deficit discourses (Gouwens & Hendrikson, 2021) and to support teachers and teacher professionalization (Epstein, 2020; Antony-Newman, 2019).

For building FSP it is considered necessary to know the cultural and family sources (Moll et al., 2005), otherwise there is a risk of missing "powerful information about home-based practices and routines, families' funds of knowledge and other aspects of children's out-of-school lives that can form a basis of engaging" (McWayne, 2021, 16:54). It is important to evaluate the perspectives of members of ethnocultural communities as "a matter of scholarly rigor and responsibility" (Hall et al., 2016, p. 41), particularly in research and practice in ethnocultural communities, which are underrepresented in conceptual frameworks and research studies (Antony-Newman, 2019; Hall et al., 2016; Wayne et al., 2019).

The challenges teachers experience in building FSP in a multilingual context require responsiveness of teacher attitudes and communication (Bakker et al., 2013). In a previous study, we have asked experienced primary teachers in newcomer education to share successful experiences in establishing FSP and to elaborate on what these experiences meant to their attitude and communication (Goedhart et al., 2024). Participating teachers considered learning processes resulting in trust, understanding and agreement particularly as positive experiences in building FSP. They used different approaches depending on the needs of parents and their own motives, role perception and available time. Their attitude was characterized by being inviting, understanding, diligent, willing to learn, responsible and cooperative and in their communication, they made choices about which languages to use, the purpose, the channel, the setting, the conversation techniques, and their non-verbal communication.

This input from teachers is valuable to design a relevant teacher professionalization program, but it lacks parents’ perspective and their experiences with FSP. Knowledge about parents' perspectives may provide additional insights for teacher education.

Parents can give us valuable information from their experiences about the role of teachers in building FSP in a multilingual context, more specifically regarding teachers’ attitude and communication. This information can be used to prepare teachers to build partnerships with parents and address the specific challenges they experience in building FSP in a multilingual context. In this study we focused on newcomer parents’ experiences in their interactions with teachers, in search of answers to the following research questions:

1. How do newcomer parents experience their interaction with primary school teachers for building FSP in a multilingual context?
2. What do parents share as relevant in their interactions with teachers, particularly regarding teachers’ attitudes and communication?

In 2023/2024, an interpretive study was conducted with narrative interviews with twelve parents from five different primary schools for newcomer education. All schools had FSP as a focus. They paid extra attention to professionalization, facilities and activities aimed at FSP. The parents came from Syria, Eritrea, and Ukraine, which represent the largest newcomer groups in the Netherlands (Bisschop et al., 2020). The parents had about one year of experience with Dutch education. Parents were invited to participate in this study by a letter in their home language and personal contact with teachers and interpreters of the schools. The narrative interviews consisted of three parts. First, parents were asked which schools their children attended in their home country and in the Netherlands, whether they had contact with the teachers at these schools, what language they used during these contacts and what the contacts were about. During the second part, four photos of contacts between teachers and parents were shown, each photo representing a different type of FSP, for example an information meeting with all parents about the school’s working methods or a conversation between parents and the teacher about the child’s progress. The parents were asked which type of FSP they recognized and were invited to share their experiences. During the third part, two photos of children are shown, one needs support with reading development, the other with well-being. The parents were asked what they would expect from the teacher in those situations and how they could work together. The narrative interviews were conducted at school in the presence of an interpreter. The Syrian, Eritrean and Ukrainian interpreter each interpreted four interviews. All three were experienced in interpreting during parent conversations. Data analysis was conducted in two phases. First, fragments were linked to the concepts ‘experiences’, ‘expectations, ‘attitude’ and ‘communication’. Summaries have been made of experiences and expectations and discussed with the parents for a member check (Creswell, 2009). Second, all fragments linked to the concepts of ‘attitude’ and ‘communication’ have been coded and thematized (Verhoeven, 2020) and compared with the results of previous research with teachers (Goedhart et al., 2024).

The parents mainly shared experiences considering conversations with teachers about their children’s progress at school. The need of a good translation was mentioned in every narrative. In most cases, school invitations were translated by the children or a translation app. Conversations with teachers were sometimes conducted in English, but all parents preferred the presence of an interpreter who speaks their language. Most parents experienced the conversations very positive. They appreciated the frequency and detailed information about their child’s development. Parents stressed their need for teachers to be available and to solve problems. Most parents expect advice of the teachers because of their professional knowledge. All parents expressed their willingness to cooperate with the teacher for their children’s support, although some parents were not used to cooperate with school. Some doubted the teacher’s advice and were afraid, because of a language barrier, their children were underestimated. From the interviews, five themes regarding teachers 'attitude were found to be important for parents. A teacher should be: • available • inviting • understanding • decisive • consulting Also, five themes were identified with respect to the communication of teachers that parents considered important. Teachers should use: • responsive language • accessible communication channels • a personal approach • positive expressions • detailed information Parents and teachers (see Goedhart, et al., 2024) agree on the importance of responsive language and accessible communication channels, as well as being inviting and understanding. Differences between parents’ perceptions of cooperative teachers and teachers’ own perceptions of their role, might be explained by culture differences (especially power distance) between newcomer-parents and teachers. This study revealed parents' needs and preferences regarding teachers' attitudes and communication practices. These needs can be considered important ingredients for the development of a professionalization program for teachers regarding their collaboration with newcomer parents.

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