Little is known about parents' book-sharing styles in indigenous communities undergoing social and cultural change. This study investigated Guatemalan Mayan parents' book-sharing styles and their relation to parents' schooling experience and children's narrative contributions. Thirty parents and their first-grade children (ages 7–9) were audiotaped sharing a worded picture book. Most parents either adopted the role of the sole narrator (40%) or shared the role of the narrator with their children (40%); other parents focused on teaching literacy skills (20%). Guatemalan Mayan parents with greater schooling experience were more likely to adopt the sole-narrator style than other styles. Children whose parents adopted the sole-narrator style contributed significantly less to the story (both in amount and type of new information provided) than children whose parents adopted other styles. Implications for family literacy programs working with Guatemalan Mayan and other indigenous communities are discussed.

We assessed impacts on classroom quality and on 5 child language and behavioral outcomes of a 2-year teacher professional-development program for publicly funded prekindergarten and kindergarten in Chile. This cluster-randomized trial included 64 schools (child N 1,876). The program incorporated workshops and in-classroom coaching. We found moderate to large positive impacts on observed emotional and instructional support as well as classroom organization in prekindergarten classrooms after 1 year of the program. After 2 years of the program, moderate positive impacts were observed on emotional support and classroom organization. No significant program impacts on child outcomes were detected at posttest (1 marginal effect, an increase in a composite of self-regulation and low problem behaviors, was observed). Professional development for preschool teachers in Chile can improve classroom quality. More intensive curricular approaches are needed for these improvements to translate into effects on children.