ABSTRACT
Ethnographers and policy makers all too often believe that they work at cross purposes and come from separate worlds. In fact, ethnography and policy share a long history and a rich tradition. The relationship between these two disciplines traces back to both academic and applied anthropological work, although applied anthropological endeavors have a stronger track record. The work of Spicer, Holmberg, Tax, Spradley, and many others has demonstrated ethnography’s relevance for policy. More recently, as discussed in the first chapter of this collection, ethnographic educational evaluators have established a tight link between educational policy and ethnography. This concluding chapter expands the discussion of a national ethnographic evaluation of dropouts begun in chapter one. This evaluation and other ethnographic studies of gifted and talented education provide specific first-hand examples of how ethnography has informed policy decision making on many levels. The lessons learned from these policy-relevant studies serve to further inform our current discussion.
