ABSTRACT

Every day, millions of US schoolchildren move between the social worlds of home and school. Shuttling between family and classroom is remarkably complex because it requires that children recognize, remember, and adapt to each setting’s culture, language, and norms. This chapter explores how teachers can support children’s learning and development by functioning as a “living bridge” between home and school. Our four-part chapter focuses on teachers with the aim of identifying the social competencies they need to build positive and productive relationships with students and families. We begin by identifying four barriers that impede teachers’ opportunities to develop their professional social competencies. Second, we describe one of the most influential home-based forms of family engagement—academic socialization—and how it shapes student-teacher classroom interactions and student outcomes. Third, we connect teachers’ social responsibilities to psychological research on social cognition, which examines our perceptions of others and social situations, our ability to think about others’ perspectives, mental states, emotions and experiences, and our ability to use that social information to make decisions and act. Finally, we identify promising examples of efforts to develop teachers’ social competencies for family engagement and, in turn, successful classroom management.