The author was interested in understanding the planning context of a literacy program based on the cultural perspectives of the Prai in order to develop a Prai literacy curriculum in school (pp. 7-8). The author noted that attending schools of Prai children, where Standard Thai is the medium of instruction, worried the ethnic group as they felt they could lose their cultural and linguistic identity. This was because the goals of education were not congruent with their ethnic cultural values. Schools perceived the ethnic language and culture negatively and these issues needed to be addressed. Maintaining their language and culture would be difficult when encountering strong social pressures. The change of the national education policy in 1999 allowed ethnic languages to be taught in school. Nevertheless, most Thai teachers could not speak minority ethnic languages and were not familiar with their cultures. Therefore, they were unable to integrate local knowledge in class. Education thus could not bring Prai children into the system because the children and their parents realized that formal education was not so relevant to their ethnic life. This work was based on various perspectives, e.g., the Prai, school teachers and state officers interested in the development of the Prai language. It was noted that for the Prai language curriculum to become successful, it must be in line with the needs of Prai children (pp. iii-iv).