Changing economic and social dynamics have tilted the racial, ethnic, and gender composition of law students nationwide to greater diversity. While law faculties are inching toward more racial and gender diversity, they still are not at rates representative of the law student population and disappointingly far from the diversity of the communities in which law schools are situated. In 2009, AALS estimated that 32% of law professors are women and 28% are racial and ethnic minorities.
Earlier this month at the AALS Annual Meeting in NOLA, Sahar Aziz (Rutgers) and SpearIt (Thurgood Marshall) organized a panel on Critical Pedagogy in the Era of Diversity in which I joined co-panelists Meera Deo (Thomas Jefferson), Teri McMurtry-Chubb (Mercer), and Mae Quinn (Florida). The panel looked at ways to respond to demographic shifts and re-configurations of classroom norms. We discussed ways to incorporate more inclusive teaching strategies, improve student engagement, address identity issues within the curriculum and classroom, prepare students to practice in a diverse society, and the role of experiential learning and academic support. As the spring semester is back in swing, it would be helpful to revisit the approaches we deployed in the classroom.
Meera Deo shared findings from her recent book, Unequal Profession: Race and Gender in Legal Academia (Stanford University Press) on "how the race and gender of individual legal academics affects not only their individual and collective experience, but also legal education as a whole." Deo conducted the first comprehensive study of the law faculty experience as to "how race and gender intersect to create profound implications for women of color law faculty members, presenting unique challenges as well as opportunities to improve educational and professional outcomes in legal education." The book provides the viewpoints of woman of color in the legal academy and offers suggestions to better achieve diversity through the process of hiring, teaching, colleague interaction, and tenure and promotion.
Women make up the majority of law students in the U.S., but comprise less than 40 percent of law faculties; women of color are a mere 7 percent of law teachers. In short, women of color legal scholars are pioneers, paving an uncharted path. Unequal Profession, based on nearly 100 personal interviews with these pioneers, offers an intimate portrait of the struggle of highly accomplished and educated women to find equal respect and opportunity in the hallowed halls of American law schools. In a profession built on the ideals of equal opportunity for all, these women's truths must be confronted: the barriers to equality in the legal academy are legion.
Next, Teri McMurtry-Chubb shared a portion of the findings from her empirical research project that considers the link between the unexamined assumptions students bring with them to law school about race, class, gender, and sexuality/sexual identity, and the flawed legal arguments students make based on these assumptions. Through an empirical study of student motion and appellate briefs on social justice topics submitted in a required legal writing course, Teri’s work reveals how legal education both prepares and fails to prepare students to represent diverse client groups in a manner that helps rather than harms.
During her presentation, Teri walked us through one of the fictional legal universes she created in which students drafted their motion and appellate briefs. Her research findings showed that a student’s ability to make effective, persuasive arguments for the parties to the fictional cause of action was directly related to their assumptions about the race, class, gender, and sexuality/sexual identity of the parties. In the last part of her presentation, Teri provided key critical pedagogies, many from her text Legal Writing in the Disciplines: A Guide to Legal Writing Mastery (Carolina Academic Press 2012) to disrupt student assumptions and help them to course correct in the final drafts of their writing assignments. Teri’s research will appear in the Washburn Law Journal in 2019.
Then Mae Quinn examined the topic of "Andragogy of 'Silence is Violence (or Hell You Talmbout?...)," using Janelle Monae's #BlackLivesMatter anthem as a point of departure to demonstrate the dire need to shift focus and priorities of legal education. She shared examples of "What the Hell," "How the Hell," and "Where the Hell" she talks about racial (in)justice as a criminal law professor. She further noted that disruptive teaching can/should extend beyond the classroom to every part of our work and world - from the spaces we create in our offices, to the ways we can affirmatively serve the community with teaching projects, to how we approach our scholarship - including by co-authoring with and citing students (particularly of color). She also explored issues surrounding privilege/positionality, relating to her whiteness, womanhood, and non-elite background -- and the ways those identities and experiences may provide some protection, platform, and/or challenges while challenging the status quo through teaching.
Finally, I discussed the importance of community-based learning in the context of courses I teach on environmental law and business law. I have organized a field visit to the Sanford City Center in Florida to demonstrate the origins of the BLM movement following the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. We participated in a walking tour of the historic district from the Sanford Civic Center, which held town hall meetings, to City Hall and the Marina. We met with the local planning director and planning engineer to discuss changes to the city and growth management problems in light of environmental justice concerns based on civil rights issues and environmental law matters. My students also orchestrated a series of webinars and programs on the topic of environmental justice and hurricanes, sponsored by the ABA's Section on Civil Rights and Environmental Justice. For a policy angle, we examined the companion bills introduced by Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Raul Ruiz regarding the Environmental Justice Act of 2017. The legislation would be the first major piece of environmental law since the flurry of laws in the 1970s and the amendments in 1990s. Due to corporate interests, no major environmental laws have been passed in almost 50 years. Minority, low-income, and indigenous communities bear the brunt of environmental harm and pollution based on the siting of energy projects, hazardous waste sites, industrial and commercial activity.
* Image of destruction from Hurricane Maria (Getty).
We welcome you to share your experiences and insights in critical pedagogy in the comments below.
Nadia B. Ahmad, Energy for Metropolis, 73 U. Miami L. Rev. 258 (2018).
Nadia B. Ahmad, Mask Off: The Coloniality of Environmental Justice, 24 Widner L. Rev. (forthcoming 2019).
Meera E. Deo, Intersectional Barriers to Tenure, U.C. Davis L. Rev.(forthcoming 2018).
Meera E. Deo, Trajectory of a Law Professor, 20 J. Race & L.441 (2015).
Meera E. Deo, A Better Tenure Battle: Fighting Bias in Teaching Evaluations, 31 J. Gender & L.7 (2015).
Meera E. Deo, Faculty Insights on Educational Diversity, 83 Fordham L. Rev.3115 (2015).
Meera E. Deo, The Ugly Truth About Legal Academia, 80 L. Rev.943 (2015).
Meera E. Deo, Looking Forward to Diversity in Legal Academia, 29 Berkeley J. Gender L. & Just.352 (2014).
Meera E. Deo, Empirically Derived Compelling State Interests in Affirmative Action Jurisprudence, 65 Hastings L.J. 661(2014).
Meera E. Deo, Two Sides of a Coin: Safe Space & Segregation in Race/Ethnic-Specific Law Student Organizations, 42 U. J.L. & Pol'y83 (2013).
Teri McMurtry-Chubb, On Writing Wrongs: Legal Writing Professors of Color and the Curious Case of 405(c), 66 J. Legal Educ. 575 (2018).
Teri McMurtry-Chub, Toward A Disciplinary Pedagogy for Legal Education, 1 Savannah L. Rev.71 (2014).
Teri McMurtry-Chub, Writing at the Master’s Table: Reflections on Theft, Criminality and Otherness in the Legal Writing Profession, 2 Drexel L. Rev. 41 (2009).
Mae Quinn, Against Professing: Practicing Critical Criminal Procedure, 60 St. Louis U.L.J. 515 (2015).
Mae Quinn, Chaining Kids to the Ever-Turning Wheel: Other Contemporary Costs of Juvenile Court Involvement, 73 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. Online 160 (2016) (with former student Candace Johnson).
Mae Quinn, Missouri *@!!?@! – Too Slow, 62 St. Louis U.L.J. (forthcoming 2018).