ABSTRACT
The principal focus of this book in its Introduction and preceding chapters has been on the use of social theory within individual research projects-on their value as sources of alternative perspectives; on an overview of the multiple perspectives they provide; on the interpretive and rhetorical condition of research and its implications for the use of social theory; and, interwoven with the narrative of one fictional teacher’s project, on the practical challenges and opportunities of using social theory as a framework for educational research. In this concluding chapter, I turn to an examination of social theory’s potential use in bringing a large number of currently disparate studies based on data collected in seemingly unrelated localities by individual researchers into greater relation with each other, and so into greater discursive coherence as a body of general, practical knowledge about educational phenomena.
