Rodney A. Clifton is Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Manitoba, where he has been teaching since 1979. He was born in Jasper, Alberta, and he taught at Memorial University for six years before moving to Manitoba. Dr. Clifton has a B.Ed. and a M.Ed. from the University of Alberta, a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education from the University of Toronto, and a Fil.Dir. in Comparative Education from the University of Stockholm. Over the last thirty years, he has published more than ninety research articles and five books and monographs. Dr. Clifton has won a number of research awards: the Spencer Fellowship from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement; the R.W.B. Jackson Research Award from the Canadian Educational Researchers' Association; and both the Edward Sheffield Award and the Distinguished Research Award from the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education.