This paper presents the results of a critical ethnography of literacy practices experienced by a group of university students, who perceived them as promoting social exclusion in the Colombian educational system. It also gives an account of their views about how this educational system could be more inclusive and contribute to peacebuilding in the…

This paper examines the sociolinguistic configuration of the Nigerian Army as indexed in the workout songs they used during jogging exercises in Calabar, South-eastern Nigeria. Data for the study were generated by means of participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The findings, drawing insights from Discourse community theory and…

Through qualitative research, which involved qualitative interviews and focus group meetings with members of four student teams, we identified a number of barriers to the development of cohesiveness in teams of local and international exchange (IE) students, who were undertaking service-learning (SL) together. Lack of cohesiveness in such teams…

This article examines how the development of techno-marketing campaigns might facilitate the engagement of university students in voluntary activities on campus which promote active citizenship and community cohesion where there is a concern about a low take up of such opportunities. The increasing influence of technology upon the forms of social…

The ideal of creating a non-racial and equitable school environment is embedded in the South African Constitution. This ideal is informed by a desire to overcome the divisions of the apartheid past by pursuing policies and strategies that will promote the achievement of social cohesion, without denying space for various identities. Schools are…

This study explores the role of public Islamic higher education in promoting better relations between various religious communities in post-authoritarian Indonesia. Based on field research conducted between December 2005 and March 2006, it documents how progressive Islamic education leaders have advanced a tradition of critical intellectualism in…

Universities may contribute to a nation's social cohesion through both direct and indirect means. In their syllabi they may include techniques necessary for understanding complex social problems. Faculty may model good behaviour in terms of listening and understanding points of view that may contradict their own. University administrators may…

This paper discusses the results of a study of faculty and university staff at two major universities in the Netherlands: the University of Amsterdam and the Free University of Amsterdam. I sought to understand how faculty viewed the role of the university in relationship to national and European goals promoting social cohesion and the integration…

In the context of ongoing social divisions, lack of coherent leadership by government, and even divisiveness over medical advances and public health mandates, how might universities respond? What university actions can support "social cohesion" in a society splintered by class, race, gender, colonial legacies, the history of apartheid,…

Presents findings of a study that examined whether West Germany's Greek, Italian, and Turkish ethnic organizations hinder the assimilation of immigrants. Reports that social integration is affected by the distinctive characteristics of each organization and its participants, but their existence, in itself, is not simply an indicator of segregation…

Criticizes two alternative approaches to indigenism--integrationism and ethnic particularism or Pan Indianism--which have played significant roles in producing contemporary patterns of Native American thinking on the indigenous question. Also discusses the impact of Central American revolutionary movements on the Indian movement and the Indian…

A review of policy statements made in the past 10 years in Soviet academic journals and Communist Party newspapers indicates that integrating rural and urban populations has become a concern of academics, government officials, and policymakers in the Soviet Union. One means by which the rural segment of Soviet society could be pushed or helped…

In Israeli school culture, the school class is a social group in which "gibush" or cohesion is cultivated. A highly cohesive class has clearly demarcated boundaries, has high integration, is internally undifferentiated, and presupposes particular conditions for formation. The gibush model reflects an ideal of communal participation and…

A longitudinal ethnographic study of adolescent moral development in an Israeli kibbutz examined the process by which urban-born adolescents, "adopted" by the kibbutz, and their kibbutz-born peers are socialized into a cohesive group. Kibbutz educators support the development of democratic self-governing peer groups that foster community…

Compares East and West Berlin before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. Offers divergent viewpoints on German reunification from interviews of two professors: one from East Germany, the other from West Germany. Recommends that social studies classes incorporate current events such as German reunification. (CH)