How can scholars trace the global production and circulation of educational policies? The vertical case study incorporates three elements: "vertical" attention across micro-, meso-, and macro-levels, or scales; a "horizontal" comparison of how policies unfold in distinct locations; and a "transversal," processual analysis of the creative appropriation of educational policies across time. The second half of the article draws upon an ethnographic study of learner-centered pedagogy in Tanzania to exemplify the vertical case study approach.