Teaching without authority

Abstract This article seeks to examine the roles played by authority within the classroom in the legal education context and its potential impact on the models of pedagogical practice. Among the pertinent factors fuelling the changing demographics of the law student body is the perceived attraction of practising law in the United Kingdom which increases the popularity of graduate conversion routes into the profession both by qualified legal practitioners from other jurisdictions and by mature students with experience in other areas. This raises a number of potential difficulties for junior law teachers in so far as this changing student body demographic is capable of challenging the teacher's real or perceived authority in the classroom which was hitherto considered a crucial tool to the educator. This article discusses the effects of the closing gap of knowledge and experience between the teacher and the student body and how the adoption of different models of pedagogy may alleviate certain difficulties that arise, perhaps to the extent of transforming this weakness into strength. In the end, however, whether to use different pedagogical models to compensate for a lack of relative authority in the classroom may hinge upon whether legal training should primarily be academically oriented or more akin to training for the practice of a trade, raising questions regarding the appropriate form and function of legal education. Acknowledgements I am especially grateful for the insightful comments offered by Agnieszka Mlicka on earlier drafts and would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for the constructive feedback. The research for this article was generously supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada and the King's Annual Fund. Notes 1C. Penley “Teaching in Your Sleep: Feminism and Psychoanalysis” in C. Nelson (ed.), Theory in the Classroom (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986) pp. 129–148 at p. 132. 2This is not to deny the role of experiential learning addressed in more detail below, in the skills-acquisition process in general, but rather to argue that the aspirations and roles of the student and the teacher differ depending upon the type of pedagogical practice pursued. Also, I will use the term “trade skill” in the expansive sense here; it may be an appropriate model of pedagogy for a range of professions that perhaps encompasses doctors, dentists and lawyers. The point being made is that this form of pedagogy approximates to the “banking model” described below. 3Others have written interesting and engaging pieces in an autobiographical voice in The Law Teacher: L. Cherkassky, J. Guth, and C. Gale, “Engaging New Law Lecturers and Reflections on the Engagement” (2009) 43(2) The Law Teacher 179, and J. Guth, “The Case for Time Turners – The Practicalities of Being a New Law Lecturer” (2009) 43(2) The Law Teacher 185. 4The claim of authority that is derived from superior age rests on shakier foundations. For instance, Thoreau has famously taken the diametrically opposite view: “Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost. One may almost doubt if the wisest man has learned any thing of absolute value by living. Practically, the old have no very important advice to give the young, their own experience has been so partial … They have told me nothing, and probably cannot tell me any thing, to the purpose.” H.D. Thoreau, Walden; Or, Life in the Woods (Mineola, NY: Dover, 1995) p. 5. 5See generally, D.L. Finkel, Teaching with Your Mouth Shut (Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 2000). While the ideas presented here may not be novel, at least in the pedagogical literature, practice in many fields has lagged behind and the experience found in many classrooms illustrates that these ideas have not percolated from theory into practice. 6A recent example is provided by a student who claimed that his 2:2 degree would have been a 2:1 with better supervision: H. McDonald, “Student Challenges Degree Result in High Court”, Guardian, 21 September 2010. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/sep/21/belfast-student-degree-legal-challenge (accessed 3 May 2012). 7S. Baker, “Legal Immunity over Marks May Wane, Expert Cautions”, The Times Higher Education, 13 January 2011. Available at http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=414832&sectioncode=26 (accessed 3 May 2012). 8J.-F. Lyotard, (G. Bennington and B. Massumi, trans), The Post-Modern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984) p. 24. 9J. Gallop, “The Immoral Teachers” (1982) 63 Yale French Studies 117–128, 118. 10J.S. Baumlin and M.E. Weaver, “Teaching, Classroom Authority, and the Psychology of Transference” (2000) 49(2) The Journal of General Education 75–87, 77. 11It is important to emphasise that the difference in teaching styles and assertion of authority in the classroom is likely to be heavily influenced by the individual personalities of these teachers, which in turn limits to some extent the inferences that can be drawn from these anecdotes. It may be possible to infer that the assertion of authority in the classroom has effects on the dynamics in the classroom and that perhaps personality differences primarily influence whether authority would be asserted in the classroom in the first place. 12J. Rancière, (G. Elliott, trans.), The Emancipated Spectator (London: Verso, 2009) p. 8. Emphasis added. 13Ibid. p. 1. 14As the opening paragraph of the book explains, Rancière merely hoped to revive the debate surrounding public education rather than defend the specific position of Jacotot. 15Rancière, supra n. 12, pp. 8–9. Emphasis in original. 16Rancière, supra n. 12, p. 2. 17See for instance, F. Cownie, Legal Academics: Culture and Identities (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2004) pp. 124–129, and J. Guth, “The Case for Time Turners – The Practicalities of Being a New Law Lecturer” (2009) 43(2) The Law Teacher 185, 189–192. 18Rancière, supra n. 12, p. 2. Emphasis added. 19Ibid. pp. 3–4. 20Ibid. p. 4. 21L. Stenhouse, “Teaching through Small Group Discussion: Formality, Rules and Authority” (1972) 2(1) Cambridge Journal of Education 18–24. 22Ibid. p. 18. 23D.A. Kolb, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1984) p. 20. 24Ibid. p. 20. 25Ibid. p. 26. 26Ibid. p. 27. 27Ibid. p. 38. 28Ibid. p. 38. 29A.Y. Kolb, and D.A. Kolb, “Learning Styles and Learning Spaces: Enhancing Experiential Learning in Higher Education” (2005) 4(2) Academy of Management Learning and Education 193–212. 30J.E. Zull, The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning (Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2002). 31Kolb and Kolb, supra n. 29, at p. 195.

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