Like Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln, and many others, the author "wants a social science that is committed up front to issues of social justice, equity, non-violence, peace, and universal human rights" (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Educational research, as she and the three authors whose papers make up this symposium of "Discourse" conceptualise it, is, essentially, applied research. It should, they believe, lead to praxis, to committed, informed action. Researchers who engage in onanistic theorising simply for the sake of the exercise, purely for the intellectual stimulation and satisfaction that they gain, are not involved in the same endeavour. In this article, the author contends that empirical research without theory is not possible. But research couched within inflexible, tightly defined, precise, overarching, and unrelenting grand or meta-theory is not much better either. Theory of this type is essentially reductionist and can lead to what she has termed the "Cinderella's slipper syndrome": that is, when researchers do as Cinderella's ugly sisters did and remorselessly cut and slice bits off their data (feet) in order to make it fit the theory (shoe). Social life is complex, and gaining understandings with a view to making things better demands complex, flexible, and adaptable theories with the potential to provoke and guide change.