Collaborative research in and with organizations 1

Collaborative research has been more advocated than practiced. Three rationales for collaborative research are discussed. A collaborative study currently under way is used to illustrate the difficulties likely to arise in such endeavours. Persistent problems around collaborative work include differences in purposes, methodological requirements, timeframes, commitments, and outcomes. Although meaningful collaborative work can be done, it is difficult and requires particular and unusual conditions to be successful.

     

Open admissions does not kill colleges

This article establishes an understanding of social cohesion in general and discusses organizations and activities that are known to promote social cohesion before introducing organizations that claim to work toward social cohesion as one of their main priorities. The Council of Europe's Directorate General of Social Cohesion represents a political organization seeking to promote social cohesion. The Jaboya Project and Field Band Foundation are social organizations with social cohesion as a priority. Although these organizations are likely to contribute to it, they cannot achieve social cohesion directly; rather, they work toward establishing conditions that are favorable to building social cohesion and anticipate the probable long-term effects of their work.     

Performing desires: The dilemma of aspirations and educational attainment

The authors critique the mechanistic notion of aspirations running through much research and policy‐making on educational and vocational outcomes. They present a performative model, with individuals drawing on limited social resources to express aspirations within constrained contexts. This argument is illustrated by discussion of the findings of large‐scale empirical investigation of the aspirations of 490 young people in three UK schools. Five themes from this analysis are presented and it is argued that these need to be explored in order to enrich and expand our understanding of young people's expression of aspirations.     

TEACHING PRAYER: CONSIDERATIONS

Teaching prayer is one of the great challenges facing the Jewish educator. Regular practice of prayer does not typify the Jewish community, and while each movement has a fairly clearly defined normative pattern of behavior, that norm is extremely far from the practice of the majority of those associating.