Catherine Marshall is a Professor of Educational Policy and Administration at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA, with expertise in policy formulation and implementation, qualitative inquiry, education careers and gender issues. She is the Past President (1990-92) of the Politics of Education Association. She was the author (with Fred Wirt and Doug Mitchell) of Culture and Education Policy in the American States (Falmer Press, 1989); The Assistant Principal: Leadership Choices and Challenges (Corwin, 1992); The Administrative Career: Problem-solving for Entry; Equity and Endurance (Corwin, 1994); Designing Qualitative Research (Sage, 1995) and editor of The New Politics of Race and Gender (Falmer Press, 1993).