ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses certain methodological considerations that accompanied the theoretical approach and argues for a type of engaged educational anthropology that goes beyond the mere "study" of education policy to its democratization and transformation. Anthropology can thus provide needed historical perspective and the ability to tease out the dynamics and inter-penetration between the different "normative social orders" of policy. The chapter suggests the way to unpack policy analytically is to see it as a kind of social practice—specifically, a practice of wielding power. The concept of appropriation is vitally linked with a broader conception of social and cultural practice that in recent years has come to invigorate the human sciences. In other words, the anthropology of education can offer knowledge that is politically and administratively feasible and actionable. Yet an anthropology of education policy may also contribute knowledge to alternative democratic projects, to educational efforts aimed at creating plural "counterpublics" for a democratic renaissance.
