Anti-Bias Teaching and Supervision: Practices That Foster Respect and Belonging for Students in Clinics and Externships (Part I)

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Session Type: Concurrent Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Hotel: N/A

Room: Union Square 23 & 24

Floor: Fourth Floor

Many law faculty, including those of us teaching in clinics and externships, struggle with how to ensure all students in our courses and programs feel accepted and respected in our classrooms as well as when they are working out in the community. This is especially the case given the current level of polarization in our politics and our social discourse. To meet these challenges and help develop the next generation of lawyer leaders, we need to be willing to talk about hard issues such as racism, implicit bias, and privilege with our students. And, just as importantly, we need to prepare students of color and those from other marginalized groups to navigate incidents of bias and unfair treatment they will likely encounter in their professional (and personal) lives.
This session will address how experiential faculty can use mindfulness practices and related tools to grow our capacity to create respectful and supportive learning environments where all students can experience a sense of belonging. Participants will come away with concrete ideas and tools they can apply to supervising and mentoring students to help them navigate challenging situations, relationships, and legal settings. The session will be structured as a mini-plenary, featuring a keynote address by an outside expert with extensive experience supervising and mentoring junior attorneys and law students, who is also a mindfulness teacher and an expert around issues of racial justice and equity. Following her talk, a discussant will provide brief remarks to enhance and build upon her ideas. A moderator will help introduce the speakers and facilitate discussion and Q & A. The presenters of this session are working closely with a companion session that will follow directly afterwards. Part I will set up the framework for an interactive roundtable discussion in Part II.