Comparative and international research in education has a well-established history, and one that has seen the changing fortunes of a diversity of research approaches and paradigms. As Epstein (forthcoming) demonstrates, much can be gained from critical reflection upon philosophical and epistemological "benchmarks" in this field, and from an analysis of the comparative strengths and limitations of different research traditions. In this article, the author recognizes the philosophical epistemological relationships between narrative approaches to educational research and the socio-cultural and interpretive traditions that have repeatedly inspired the field of comparative education since the days of Michael Sadler ([1900] 1979).