Introducing the text and examining the emergence, maintenance, and expansion of gaps, deficits, and risks through early childhood policy

As the field of early childhood care and education continues to ride a global wave of interest from a range of stakeholders, much of their support is rooted in a rhetoric that frames children as lacking. As such, children and their families must be provided with access to early education services so that they can be inoculated against current and future gaps, risks, and deficits so that society will not have to be burdened by them. This logic must be disrupted, and in this chapter, I introduce the reader to how those who participated in the construction of this book accomplish this goal. To do this, I first provide some history about how gaps, risks, and deficits emerged within early education policy within the United States, and I provide some insight into how others, who are not a part of this text, have addressed the issues I highlight in this chapter. I end this chapter by outlining how the distinguished authors who contributed to this book unpack the logic of gaps, risks, and deficits across a range of issue and offer strategies to counter such thinking within early childhood care and education.