Introduction; It's a Bit Hard to Believe: Refl ections on an Unforseen Career Trajectory; A Globalizing, Optimistic-Pessimistic Educational Researcher; Growing a Theory of the Developing Mind - In and Around the Ivory Tower; Becoming a Research Methodologist and Psychometrician: Chances, Opportunities, and Infl uences; Serendipity and an Accidental Psychometrician; Finding the Right Focus; Becoming an Educational Researcher, as Mexican Education Became a Field of Research for the Social Sciences; The Development of a (Philosophical) Disillusionist; Biography of a Restless Scholar; Play: A Basis for Becoming an Educational Researcher; Finding the Words - An Anthropology of Educational Becoming; The Development of a Promoter of Higher Education Research; The Making of an Educational Economist in a Country in Transition; Autobiography of an Inadvertent Educational Researcher;

In this volume fourteen fellows of the International Academy of Education, whose research work is known internationally, reflect upon the ways in which their careers have been shaped by early family influences, by random events and surprise opportunities, and by nascent intellectual interests and academic mentoring. The authors come from many different countries (Australia, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Israel, Mexico, South Africa, and the USA), and from a number of disciplinary or intellectual orientations including curriculum development, economics, educational measurement and statistical analysis, history, philosophy, policy analysis, program evaluation, psychology, and sociology. They come from diverse social and cultural backgrounds; and in many cases rose above the travails presented by wars, social unrest, and social injustice to attain an education that launched them eventually into a research career. On this path, many were unexpectedly assisted by established researchers who served as mentors or "enablers." Their personal stories, then, are of broad interest - and may even be a source of comfort and inspiration to younger colleagues who are commencing their careers in the international educational research community.