The clinical
movement remains largely committed to the social justice imperatives from which
it took root. However, new pressures from administrators, students, and
employers, combined with the near-term retirement of clinical leaders with
strong justice commitments, raise pressing concerns for our teaching and our
community. Now, more than ever, clinicians must be able to articulate the
pedagogy and value of justice education in clinics and by extension within law
schools. We hope to engage in this discussion with colleagues from a wide range
of types of clinical practice settings and subject matter disciplines and
across age and status cohorts.
These are some of the
questions we are considering as we prepare for the workshop in May:
· Is
it possible to cultivate an interest in social justice in our students? Are
there effective ways to prompt a “justice skill set” amongst diverse groups of
students working toward a broad range of types of post-graduate work?
· Does
public interest practice offer a model from which to think backwards?
· How
can we use pedagogical strategies to more explicitly link clinical practice
with systemic barriers to justice?
· How
do we integrate social movement activity in our communities into our clinics?
· How
can we think more strategically and democratically about case intake?
· What
would a holistic justice pedagogy look like, one that was attuned to the
various sites of our teaching, including supervision, seminar, and rounds?
We aim to build a coherent
working group over four sessions at the conference. We will be working toward a
multi-session design with the input and engagement of those who have opted into
the workshop.