�Critiquing commitments to community and belonging in today’s law school

Dr Verona Ní Drisceoil, SFHEA

Reader in Legal Education

University of Sussex

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Liz Thomas (2012,13); Karen Gravett and Rola Ajjawi (2021); Karen Gravett (Bloomsbury, 2023) 

Outline

Part I: What does it mean to belong?

We need to challenge our assumptions…

https://www.belongingtouniversity.co.uk/

��Part II:�What do meaningful connections in learning and teaching look like, and how might we foster these?� �Relational Pedagogies: Connections and Mattering in Higher Education�(Gravett, 2023)

(1) Ground clearing practices e.g. A mission statement on your module page

(2)Building a ‘principled space’: ‘Lectures and seminars will aim to be a principled space

• Providing a principled space v safe space (no one can guarantee a safe space)

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• ‘The BARC collective begins each session with a ground-clearing practice that sets a levelled foundation upon which to build our work and relations in the workshop space.’
• https://barcworkshop.org/resources/principled-space/

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Hanalei Ramos suggests that principled spaces are better suited to creating the environments we wish to develop:

commit to adhering to a set of principles that guide and shape the space and increase the possibility of safety for all involved.

(3) Say my name…

• Say My Name Project – Professor Jane Jane Bryanryan (Warwick Law School): https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/research/projects/saymyname/

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(4) Encourage, inspire, praise - build confidence, empower, praise

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• Be generous with your praise!
• ‘Mattering’ – Relational Pedagogy (Gravett, 2023) 

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(5)Object based learning/Group based learning/sorting exercises

• Low risk engagement exercises
• An object to start discussion
• Sorting exercises  - processes, order
• e.g. The legislative process
• Court hierarchy
• Stages to buying a house 

Building Connection and Community outside the classroom

‘Making Connections’ Induction programme…

‘My Voice @Sussex’ Induction programme

• To build confidence in voice work and public speaking
• Holistic, student-centred and inclusive. 1-5 SSR
• Representation/ choice of materials (inspiring speeches)
• Co-delivery with former and current students 

The ‘Law’ Critique and Question Reading Group (online)

We need to foster spaces for connection WITH our students not just for our students.

Q: In your opinion, what helps you, as a law student, to feel like you belong and are part of a community in Sussex Law School?

Good student friendships and networks

Good connection and engagement with staff and faculty

Data from a 2021 project

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• ‘Your Teachers are/as Researchers’ grew out of a desire for connectedness in a particularly difficult time, to bridge the staff/student binary and grow a research culture that shared a space with our students.’

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(Thomas 2012; Thomas et al 2017) – Build an ‘enabling environment’

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• At the heart of student retention and success is a strong sense of belonging in HE for all students. This is most effectively nurtured through students’ engagement in mainstream activities that all students participate in.

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• The academic sphere is the most important site for nurturing engagement which creates a sense of belonging.

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Part III:�Within our current framing of community and belonging, who does the labour?

Walk with me project…

Sara Ahmed�https://feministkilljoys.com/

Jarvinen and Mik-Meyer, ‘Giving and receiving: Gendered service work in academia’ (2024) �Current Sociology

• Article based on 163 qualitative interviews. Denmark.
• Academic service = ‘activities undertaken to fulfil the organisational and administrative needs of one’s workplace or profession’.
• Relational ‘service’ profiles

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Linda Babcock et al.�The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work

‘women conduct more non-promotable, non-recognised academic service than men’

Career Pathways… (UK)

Navigating Education and Scholarship Pathways in Law Schools in the UK 

Part IV: Recommendations

Reference List

• Fay M, & Skipper Y, “I was able to ask for help when I became stressed rather than sitting alone and struggling”: psychology and law students’ views of the impact of identity and community on mental wellbeing (2022) 56 (1) The Law Teacher 20–36.
• Gravett K and Ajjawi R, 'Belonging as situated practice' (2022) 47(7) Studies in Higher Education 1386-1396.
• Gravett K, Relational Pedagogies: Connections and Mattering in Higher Education (Bloomsbury Academic 2023).
• hooks b, Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope (Routledge 2003).
• Järvinen M and Mik-Meyer N, 'Giving and receiving: Gendered service work in academia' (2024) Current Sociology (online).
• Kennedy D, 'Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy' (1992) 32(4) Journal of Legal Education 519-615.
• Macfarlane B, 'Student performativity in higher education: converting learning as a private space into a public performance' (2015) 34(2) Higher Education Research & Development 338-.
• Meyer D, & Strevens C, “Is using the term wellbeing with students a mistake? Evaluating a wellbeing intervention in a UK Law School - suggestions for repositioning strategies to address the impact of deficit-discourse" (2022) 56 (1) The Law Teacher 54–66.
• Morrison D and Guth J, 'Rethinking the neoliberal university: embracing vulnerability in English law schools?' (2021) The Law Teacher (published online 4 February 2021).
• Scott S, 'A sociology of nothing: understanding the unmarked' (2018) 52(1) Sociology 3-19.
• Stanley C, 'Training for the Hierarchy? Reflections on the British Experience of Legal Education' (1988) 22 The Law Teacher 78-86.

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