Mark Bray began his career as a teacher in Kenya in 1970. In 1973 he moved to Benue State, Nigeria, and then in 1976 to Kano. In 1978 he was appointed to a lectureship in the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh. This book is based on his PhD thesis completed at the University of Edinburgh and on subsequent follow-up research. Later in his career, Mark Bray taught at the Universities of Papua New Guinea, London, and Hong Kong. Between 2006 and 2010 he took leave from Hong Kong to work in Paris as Director of UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). He currently holds the UNESCO Chair in Comparative Education at the University of Hong Kong.