This article was based on a presentation to the AILA (International Association of Applied Linguistics) Scientific Commission on Literacy in Tokyo, 2000. It was included in a special issue of Language and Education on the theme New Directions in Literacy Research: Policy, Pedagogy, Practice. The article takes an innovative approach to policy analysis by applying the framework of Actor Network Theory to a new educational technology, that of the OECD's International Literacy Survey. Included in the ERIC database, this article has been cited and subsequently used by those wishing to develop the application of ANT in educational research. Language and Education is an internationally distributed refereed journal. The publisher, Multilingual Matters allows free access to back issues of its journals in order to widely disseminate leading edge work. RAE_import_type : Journal article RAE_uoa_type : Education