ABSTRACT
Cornbleth and Waugh (1993) further call for a certain kind of multicultural policy study, paying more "systematic attention to the politics of policy-in-the-making" in contrasting settings with different dynamics. The term "policy" connotes a concrete object or text, the product or outcome of a process. In this study we offer an alternative perspective grounded in the symbolic interactionist paradigm, in which policy is a process (Hall, 1987, 1992, 1995). From this perspective, policy research is an attempt to capture significant events in a continuous flow of collective activity that begins before and extends past the point at which a policy text (report, legislation) is produced. For example, our case study of a district-level multicultural policy process shows how a racial conflict became the catalyst for district multicultural policy-making. The case "begins" with the conflict and "ends" with the adoption of policy recommendations, but the process began long before the conflict
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and continues today, with the implementation of the recommendations.
