Over the past 20 years, approaches to educational policy analysis have opened up to qualitative research methods and to sociocultural perspectives on schooling. This volume is a collection of studies that view educational policy from a variety of angles and at different levels of social life. It consists of 12 chapters: (1) "Are Pedagogical Ideals Embraced or Imposed? The Case of Reading Instruction in the Republic of Guinea" (Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt and Ntal-I'Mbirwa Alimasi); (2) "Linking Research to Educational Policy and Practice: What Kind of Relationships in How (De)Centralized a Context?" (Donald K. Adams, Mark B. Ginsburg, Thomas Clayton, Martha E. Mantilla, Judy Sylvester, and Yidan Wang); (3) "Policy Research as Ethnographic Refusal: The Case of Women's Literacy in Nepal" (Margaret Sutton); (4) "Multicultural Curriculum and Academic Performance: African American Women Leaders Negotiating Urban School Accountability Policies" (Khaula Murtadha-Watts); (5) "Teachers' Perceptions of Their Participation in Policy Choices: The Bottom-Up Approach of the Nueva Escuela Unitaria in Guatemala" (Martha E. Mantilla); (6) "When Politics Becomes Pedagogy: Oppositional Discourse as Policy in Mexican Teachers' Struggles for Union Democracy" (Susan Street); (7) "Beyond Educational Policy: Bilingual Teachers and the Social Construction of Teaching 'Science' for Understanding" (Pamela Anne Quiroz); (8) "Health Education Policies and Poor Women in Brazil: Identifying Myths That Undermine Empowerment" (Isabela Cabral Felix de Sousa); (9) "The Impact of Life Histories on Local Policy: New Immigrant Education in the Rural Midwest" (Sandra L. Cade); (10) "'That School Gotta Recognize Our Policy!': The Appropriation of Educational Policy in an Australian Aboriginal Community" (R. G. Schwab); (11) "'We Are Mountain': Appalachian Educators' Responses to the Challenge of Systemic Reform" (Maureen Porter); and (12) "Myth Making and Moral Order in a Debate on Mathematics Education Policy" (Lisa Rosen). (RT)