Julia López-Robertson, Susi Long, and Kindel Turner-Nash First Steps in Constructing Counter Narratives of Young Children and Their Families While we say we believe in every child, the teachers in this article demonstrate that we each have hidden biases that require examination, and it is dificult to recognize those biases when we know so little about our children’s lives outside of school. I pictured Latina women in such roles as housekeepers and maids. Letting them speak Spanish in school will hinder their ability to learn English and also hold back the other children. His house will be messy and dirty. Nobody reads to him at home. T hese are the words of teachers and pre- service teachers who offered their initial assumptions about children and fami- lies from backgrounds different from their own. Through experiences in the children’s homes and communities, the same teachers began to recog- nize that assumptions such as these are danger- ous single stories (Adichi, 2009)—inaccuracies that negatively deine and label children and fami- lies and limit teachers’ visions for what is educa- tionally possible. The words of Nigerian novelist Chimimanda Adichi resonated with us as she spoke about the ease with which we all deine others by single stories until we take the time to look beyond stereotypes. This provided an impor- tant backdrop to our recognition of the power that teachers hold to either perpetuate single stories or interrupt them by providing counter narratives that make visible the rich resources that children and families bring to schools. These irst steps—or as one teacher put it, “small beginnings”—in the process of coming to know self and others occurred after teachers and preservice teachers (we will call them all teach- ers in this article) moved beyond the classroom to spend time in homes and communities. Key to the experience was venturing beyond the school walls as learners—not to evaluate or observe, not to teach parenting skills, not to demonstrate how to play or read with children, but to begin develop- ing new kinds of relationships, and to learn about the joys, concerns, sources of pride, knowledge, languages, and literacies that are central in fam- ilies’ lives. In the process, they became better equipped to challenge these single stories—stories expressing deicit views about children of color, those who speak languages other than English, and those from low-income households. By questioning their own and others’ assump- tions, these teachers not only came to value chil- dren and families in new ways, but they were better able to broaden visions of what counts as knowledge, language, and literacy. They also began to understand the importance of helping children from dominant cultural and linguistic groups (White, middle class, English speaking) appreciate that other ways of being are as legit- imate as their own. Finally, they became more sensitive to the fact that any stories told about children and families, even when deemed by the families as accurate, “relect only a glimpse of the multifaceted prism” of their identities (Gonzalez, 2001, p. xvi). This article draws on the experiences of these teachers to provide encouragement to other edu- cators who are ready to swing the pendulum from what may have become a deicit habit (Díaz & Flores, 2001) to recognition of the resources that all children and families bring to classrooms. The aim is not to essentialize (make generaliza- tions about groups of people) or romanticize (look through rose-colored glasses at what may be dif- icult home situations), but to reverse deicit per- spectives that often exist more from habit, hearsay, and institutional tradition rather than from real experience and knowledge. We greatly respect and are deeply grateful to these teachers for their cour- age to honestly articulate prior assumptions, move beyond their cultural comfort zones, and draw new conclusions as we relected together. We hope their stories will give courage to others to look in new ways beyond their own worlds. First Steps 93 Language Arts ● Vol. 88 ● No. 2 ● November 2010 Copyright © 2010 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.