Ethnography, a qualitative, small-scale, indepth approach to research developed within the discipline of anthropology, is here explored as a potential strategy in the investigation of issues related to educational governance and policy-making. The first section of the paper defines the term ethnography and discusses characteristics of the methodology in its application to the study of schooling. The second section offers an overview of the work in educational ethnography to date that is most directly relevant to policy-making. The studies discussed investigate schools from the perspectives of stability and change, focusing on interactional dynamics, on relationships between staff and parents, on the role of educational administrators, and on ways cultural values are expressed in schooling. The third section analyzes the implications of ethnographic research for educational policy-making. The author states that ethnography's primary strengths in educational research include its usefulness in problems of definition, especially in understanding processes of change, in the development of action programs, and in program implementation, evaluation, and modification. (Author/WD)