Reflections On Clinical Legal Education PDF Download

This study explored what role reflective practice has in Nigerian clinical law programmes, and aimed to understand how the concept is used in teaching and learning in law clinic practice and social justice work. The theoretical concept of reflective practice in clinical legal education is still an emerging concept in legal education, with suggestions for an integrative and expansive framework (Leering, 2014; Lowenberger, 2019; Madhloom, 2019; Seear et al., 2019; Spencer & Brooks, 2019). The theoretical framework of this study is positioned within experiential and transformative learning that recognised collective, relational, and contextual learning; and the concept that reflective practice should be an integrative process inclusive of cognitive and emotional processes. The methodological framework used a qualitative case study situated within a constructivist paradigm that incorporated contextual background of law clinics in Nigeria and the complexities law clinics face in dealing with their intervention in social justice issues. Data collection was through in-depth semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions. I interviewed six participants comprised of clinical law teachers selected through purposeful sampling, and data analysis was a comparative process moving from inductive to deductive processes by identifying meaningful and relevant themes (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Findings indicated that in clinical legal education in Nigeria, reflective practice was identified as an integral aspect without which teaching would revert to the traditional theoretical approach. I found five major themes through which participants integrated reflective practice, and they include, a) reflective practice was integrated in classroom learning processes through various feedback tools; b) reflections occurred during out-of-classroom experiential learning at different stages of law clinic practice cycle and community outreaches; c) reflection supported learning and helped to address issues brought forward as a result of emotions triggered during law clinic activities; d) participants connected their practice to theory and provided a framing of reflective practice which had not existed prior to this study; and e) reflective practice was fundamental in assessing the impact of clinical legal education on students and teachers - in the development of professional skills and social values, and communities - in addressing legal needs. Teaching clinically was seen as reflective teaching which holistically integrated critical reflection, reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action, and created space for the role of emotions and relational learning in legal practice. Law clinic practice evoked deep emotions for students when exposed to societal harms and the criminal justice system. The study however, indicated that reflective practice was implicitly an integral part of clinical legal education that needed to be made more explicit through increased documentation of processes, to promote transferability of knowledge and practice in legal education. The study provided a theoretical guide in framing and supporting a framework for an expansive concept of reflective practice for clinical legal education and for the legal profession.