This book examines the interactions of gender and race, developmental psychology, and public policy and how, collectively, they influenced the marginalization of early childhood caregivers' and educators' roles. In order to learn how their roles came to be both externally and internally marginalized-in public esteem, research attention, compensation, and valuation-Goffin traces the origins of the early childhood care and education field and its evolution over time. Also taken into account is the influence of the early childhood care and education field's insufficient attention to practitioners' emerging stature. Chapter by chapter, the book (Left Behindfor short) calls attention to the historical influences of its racial and gender context, its long-standing reliance on developmental psychology, and its dependence on public policy, along with how, when intertwined, these influences led to the marginalization of early childhood caregivers and educators' role, which helped shape early childhood care and education as a field of practice. This work is ideal for early childhood care and education's undergraduate and graduate faculty, its undergraduate and graduate students, early childhood care and education policy advocates, those in state department administrative roles, those who self-identify as change agents, plus early childhood caregivers and educators who want to learn more about their history.