EDL 581 focuses on the practice of early childhood education and care (ECEC), as well as the role of families and policymakers in altering practices and policies. The course offers an analysis of the critical forces that have shaped contemporary ECEC, current ECEC services and policies, and inventive theories about how to organize such services to achieve optimal quality, equity, sustainability, and efficiency. Course sessions will confront diverse challenges that characterize the ECEC field and unveil some of the thinking and efforts to redress them. In so doing, the course focuses on quality and diverse efforts to achieve it; the lack of equity; the need for more effective approaches to the workforce, funding, and governance; and the importance of parental voice.