About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

45 Me. L. Rev. 19 (1993)
Creating a Classroom Component for Field Placement Programs: Enhancing Clinical Goals with Feminist Pedagogy

handle is hein.journals/maine45 and id is 25 raw text is: CREATING A CLASSROOM COMPONENT FOR FIELD PLACEMENT PROGRAMS: ENHANCING CLINICAL GOALS WITH FEMINIST PEDAGOGY Linda Morton* We would start by learning where the students are, and that meant teaching as listening rather than teaching as telling. We had to help ourselves and each other overcome our own assump- tions about the role of teacher. We had to let go of expecting teachers to lecture and students to give back to teachers what they want to hear. It was to be a pedagogy for liberation.' I. INTRODUCTION There exists a historic conflict between the more traditional Langdellian philosophy of legal education,2 and the experiential phi- losophy of apprenticeship programs, now known as field placement programs.3 The conflict is most recently apparent in the American Bar Association's (ABA) attempts to impose a more traditional classroom format on field placement programs through its regula- tions, guidelines, and instructions pertaining to law school accredita- tion.4 The ABA argues that law schools need to allocate greater in- * COPYRIGHT © May 1992 Associate Professor, California Western School of Law. B.A., Princeton University, 1977; J.D. Northeastern University, 1981. I am grateful to Professors Anthony Alfieri, Marie Ashe, Michal Belknap, Barbara Cox, Marilyn Ireland, and Janet Weinstein for their thoughtful comments on earlier drafts of this Article. I also wish to thank my research assistant, Linda Littlefield, for her diligent efforts and assistance. 1. Liz Aaronsohn, Learning to Teach for Empowerment 40 RAOicAL TEAcHER 44 (1991) (discussing the author's experiences teaching in Mississippi Freedom Schools in 1964). 2. The term Langdellian philosophy refers to the theory of learning developed by Dean Langdell of Harvard Law School in the late nineteenth century by which students learn to be lawyers by studying legal principles extracted from appellate decisions. See ROBERT STEVENS, LAw SCHOOL LEGAL EDUCATION IN AMERICA FROM THE 1850s To THE 1980s 52-56 (1983). For a more detailed discussion of Langdell's philos- ophy, see infra text accompanying notes 28-32. 3. In a memorandum, the American Bar Association (ABA) defines field place- ment progratms as internships, externships, judicial clerkships, placement clinics, and any other program in which actual rendition of legal services or other actual legal activity are used and in which full-time members of the faculty are not ultimately responsible for the quality of the service or other activity. Memorandum from James P. White, Consultant on Legal Education to the American Bar Association, to Mem- bers of Site Evaluation Team 15 (Sept. 1988) (on file with author). California West- ern School of Law refers to its field placement program as the Internship Program. 4. See discussion of ABA Standard 306, Interpretation 2 and accompanying in- structions, infra notes 60-80 and accompanying text.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most