ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author provides a narrative account of policy making, an auto-ethnography that describes both arbitrariness and motivated 'play' of discourse in the sites of local policy development. He utilizes this to make a case for evidence-based educational policy. The author argues that such an approach should be based on a rich, multi-perspectival hermeneutic social science, rather than the narrow positivist approaches advocated in the United States and UK. He then describes Literate Futures, the Queensland State literacy strategy developed with Peter Freebody and Ray Land. Part of the achievement of Literate Futures was that it captured the complexity of literacy and education in transition. Drawing on sociological models of capital, the author makes the case for the making of literacy-in-education policy as a subset of sustainable, broader educational, social and economic policy. In most Australian states, the major policy settings for reform have been in place for some years now.
