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Growing tension within the early childhood education sector of Aotearoa New Zealand around the roles teachers and families might play in preparing children for success in school suggests that notions of readiness are gaining traction. In this paper, we draw on data from three empirical studies to position families as experts in the lives of their children, valuing the linguistically and culturally diverse literacies children carry from their whānau, homes, and communities in bicultural and superdiverse Aotearoa New Zealand. Exemplars of family pedagogies framed through a funds of knowledge theoretical lens, provide counternarratives to deficit discourses regarding children's language competencies, and challenge the encroaching reductionist notion of the 'language gap' and narrow views of early literacy promoted in the preparation of children for English-medium schooling. The data presented highlight family linguistic and cultural resources, the efforts of families to sustain home languages, and the critical role of early childhood teachers to engage in reciprocal partnerships with families. Affirmation of the complexities of children's language/s and literacies and the work of early childhood teachers are discussed in the implications for early childhood teacher education and professional development, centre leadership, and policy.

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Purpose The purpose of this work is to describe the current sociopolitical context and complex consequences surrounding elementary literacy education in one Midwestern US state and consider how power works through language. Design/methodology/approach Using qualitative methods and critical discourse analysis as a theory and method, surveys and interview data from teachers, administrators and parents, policy documents and other artifacts were analyzed and described to explain the sociopolitical climate. Findings Using Fairclough (2015) and Gee’s (2015) tools, the authors identified the discourses of deficiency, efficiency and gatekeeping in the data. Foucault’s ideas about governmentality and regimes of truth are used to explain the ways teachers took up the policies and resisted them. Research limitations/implications The authors argue that a new testing regime is on the move, and more unity and critique by elementary and secondary teachers and administrators will be important for restoring and sustaining quality literacy instruction and decision-making in all classrooms. Practical implications Continued research is needed to understand how particular reading assessments exacerbate and perpetuate the ranking and sorting in schools and the loss and struggle children face when they are denied literacy experiences that validate their lives outside of school and give meaning and purpose to reading in school. Originality value As the reality for secondary education language arts teachers begins to shift to a more restrictive curriculum, a loss of academic freedom and frequent testing, the authors see an opportunity for new professional alliances to form in support of a complex theory of literacy.

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