Event Title
Impacts of Culture and How it Affects Clinical Pedagogies
Location
Hirsch Hall, Room C
Start Date
10-3-2018 1:30 PM
End Date
10-3-2018 2:45 PM
Description
For decades, educators across the world have been advocating for educational reform that would increase the number of practical skills courses included in traditional legal education.
In 2011, Qatar University College of Law established a practical skills class, the Externship Program, designed to teach students real life lawyering skills, encourage graduates to pursue legal careers, and overcome existing administrative, cultural, and social barriers while preserving Qatari identity and customs. Melissa’s presentation will focus on the practical impact and benefit of externships on law schools and local communities in developing countries in the Middle East. It will also explore the possible future of this pedagogy as it becomes more popular in the G.C.C.
Stephanie’s presentation will focus on cultural compassion taught as a critical pedagogy. “People of different religions and cultures live side by side in almost every part of the world, and most of us have overlapping identities which unite us with very different groups. We can love what we are, without hating what – and who – we are not. We can thrive in our own tradition, even as we learn from others, and come to respect their teachings.” Knowledge of applicable laws and rules, with an ability to analyze and distinguish precedent are important lawyering skills, many of which are taught and perfected during one’s law school experience. However, effective legal advocacy involves more than a mastery of the law and skill, it requires a deep understanding of the client. In our growing multicultural society, while cultural competence is increasingly important for professionals to create effective working relationships with their clients and adequately address their clients’ needs; competence alone is insufficient. This article examines why “practice readiness” requires law school curriculums to introduce and to incorporate “cultural compassion” as a critical pedagogy.
Impacts of Culture and How it Affects Clinical Pedagogies
Hirsch Hall, Room C
For decades, educators across the world have been advocating for educational reform that would increase the number of practical skills courses included in traditional legal education.
In 2011, Qatar University College of Law established a practical skills class, the Externship Program, designed to teach students real life lawyering skills, encourage graduates to pursue legal careers, and overcome existing administrative, cultural, and social barriers while preserving Qatari identity and customs. Melissa’s presentation will focus on the practical impact and benefit of externships on law schools and local communities in developing countries in the Middle East. It will also explore the possible future of this pedagogy as it becomes more popular in the G.C.C.
Stephanie’s presentation will focus on cultural compassion taught as a critical pedagogy. “People of different religions and cultures live side by side in almost every part of the world, and most of us have overlapping identities which unite us with very different groups. We can love what we are, without hating what – and who – we are not. We can thrive in our own tradition, even as we learn from others, and come to respect their teachings.” Knowledge of applicable laws and rules, with an ability to analyze and distinguish precedent are important lawyering skills, many of which are taught and perfected during one’s law school experience. However, effective legal advocacy involves more than a mastery of the law and skill, it requires a deep understanding of the client. In our growing multicultural society, while cultural competence is increasingly important for professionals to create effective working relationships with their clients and adequately address their clients’ needs; competence alone is insufficient. This article examines why “practice readiness” requires law school curriculums to introduce and to incorporate “cultural compassion” as a critical pedagogy.