Social cohesion and social education in two educational research journals: ‘Temps d’Educació’ and ‘Educació Social. Revista d’Intervenció Socioeducativa’

This paper examines the discussion of social cohesion in the two educational research journals Temps d’Educació and Educació Social. Revista d’Intervenció Socioeducativa since they first addressed this subject, in 1989 in the case of Temps d’Educació and in 1995 in the case of Educació Social. The paper reviews 26 articles from Temps d’Educació and 35 articles from Educació Social, selected because the word ‘cohesion’ appeared in the title, key words or text itself. The use of the term ‘cohesion’ was classified according to its association with social education in one of three areas: a) the discussion of social factors that impede social cohesion; b) the discussion of social education as a tool for creating more egalitarian relations and c) the discussion of social education models designed to create social cohesion. In each area the paper provides representative examples and highlights the associated words, and it concludes by proposing which factors should accompany a working definition of social cohesion in social education.