Linking the global and the local in educational research: some insights from dynamic systems theory

Furlong’s (2004) recent discussion of ‘the re-emergence of the paradigm wars’ draws attention to the remarkable resilience of what Martin Hammersley (2002) has called ‘two worlds theories’ in educational research (e.g. theory/practice; quantitative/ qualitative; global/local). Although the last thirty years or so have witnessed a range of analyses and deconstructions of binary thinking from a variety of critical and postmodern perspectives (see, for example, Derrida, 1976; Kaufman, 2001; Parker, 1997, Stronach & McLure, 1997), such thinking appears to be particularly recalcitrant within educational discourses.