Talking heresy about \u27quality\u27 early childhood education and care for children in poverty

This paper considers the socially progressive function of a model of \u27quality\u27 early childhood education and care widely prescribed to address child poverty across England and the USA. Ubiquitous, it is imbued with a sense of objectivity, secureness and practicality. We question these foundations. Then using data from practitioners in both countries, we contrast expectations about this model of ECEC as an unmitigated good building resilience to \u27break cycles of disadvantage\u27, with the everyday experiences and frustrations of practitioners pursuing it. Their data suggest this model of \u27quality\u27 has limitations and some heresy is required about this policy orthodoxy