Certainly, I know that all pivot point controls should and can only be available in Object Mode. However, I really found there are certain cases when we need to arrage transformation behaviors (translate/scale/rotate) for contexts(or say elements, aka vertice/edges/faces)) in Edit mode.

Here is a typical video in which I'm modeling a embroidered ball.

http://youtu.be/fBFCTwZ6UZ4

As you can see, I go no shortcut in order to the scale align individual normal axis to each face. Shift+R is all I can do to speed up the work, however it's not enough. You see, there are so many faces!

PS: I saw some guy got similar need https://blenderstorm.org/blenderstorm/idea/442/

However, to be exact, our ideas got a bit different to each other. Guys, I really hope you can understand what I'm talking about. FYI. Sincerely.