For years social science researchers have bemoaned their lack of impact on educational policy. The general view is that policy makers respond to urgent problems with ad hoc solutions and without evidence of what works. It has also become fashionable among comparativists to argue that little learning occurs at the local level but that innovations in the developing world are due to policy borrowing. Rather than truly to innovate, it is argued, policy makers and educators too often look outside their locales for solutions to complex, unique, and local educational problems. In this article, the author proposes a different model based on her work in international and comparative research. She argues that international and comparative research that is collaborative, reflective, rigorous, capacity building, and policy oriented can allow learning at the ground level and produce usable knowledge for policy making and implementation. Moreover, she proposes that the mere act of engaging in comparative and collaborative reflective inquiry already constitutes an intervention and brings about a notion of normativity and accountability to the phenomenon under study, thus challenging the notion that research does not have an effect and that policy is borrowed. Adapted from the source document.