Educational Policy Analysis and the Politics of Interpretation

The authors in this article report on and develop a methodology for producing a well-defined problem in policy analysis. The methodology, which is christened the "evaluative context, " is defined as an iterative process based on a series of checklist questions. It is given a theoretical background in the literature, and its genesis and development are discussed in connection with a number of practical projects in earlier sections of the article. Finally, the use of the method ology is exhibited in a recent project.