Collaboration brings gains in an understanding of different perspectives and contexts. Others bring different contexts and perspectives to our work. Application of theory to practice is best done alone because it requires a thorough understanding of one's field to see the possibilities for application. Often the outsider can bring greater insight when working in conjunction with those who are experts. The outsider is often not constrained by the discipline's traditional patterns of thought and ways of explaining things.
Collaboration requires that each collaborator become expert in the shared field.
Epistemology is the technical philosophical term for the theory or science of who we know. Women's ways of knowing is about how our epistemology is affected by gender and gender-based experience. On p. 128 Mahoney speaks of personal reality and objective reality. Personal reality is reality as the person experiences reality, based on that person's epistemology, or ways of knowing. It is rather like finding our feet on ground that is moving.