Inclusive Curriculum

This article uses the concept of “ally theater” to reframe some of the risks inherent in white professors' use of legal writing problems centered on issues of race. Part I identifies a more effective form of allyship than the common phenomenon of "ally theater" for white legal writing professors. Part II recommends that white law professors-- whose privilege makes them less inclined to notice the conditions that cause law students of color to bear additional burdens in comparison to their white counterparts--assume that these conditions are present in their classrooms. Part III lists specific strategies that white legal writing professors can use to address the assumptions presented in Part II.

This article will introduce and explain the concept of a culturally and personally relevant curriculum, articulate its goals, describe how the authors applied those goals to Southern University Law Center's legal writing curriculum, and suggest methods that others can use to develop writing problems that are relevant to their students.

This book features DEI learning outcomes and assessments, course planning templates for each course in the core law curriculum, and racial trauma-informed teaching approaches. It also includes FAQs and discussion questions by chapter to work through as legal educators plan and implement DEI curricular initiatives at your law school. The book is organized in three main parts: first, detailing the evolution of teaching with a DEI lens; second, providing instruction on how to build a course that integrates a DEI curricular lens; third, providing examples of course planning and instructional materials for core curriculum courses at the easy, intermediate, and difficult levels.

This article discusses the two-fold nature of multicultural education: educating on multicultural topics and educating multicultural students. By examining eight different law schools, the author discusses current efforts in each law school that impact the educational experience, the shortfalls in these efforts, and the need for first-year integration of multicultural topics. In particular, the Article addresses multicultural education through the lens of a legal writing professor and concludes by making recommendations for how all legal educators can enhance the classroom experience by creating a multicultural environment.

This article examines the ways in which legal writing pedagogy contributes to the marginalization of outsider voices in the law. Part II explores the two reigning pedagogies of legal writing and describes how teaching law as language marginalizes outsider voices. Part III explores specific examples of this. Part IV considers various solutions, which suggests that law school must teach more critical legal theory and methodology in the first year. The article concludes that the academy should consider incorporating concepts of critical theory into the art of lawyering.

This article discusses how law school, specifically through legal writing courses, can address cultural bias and its effect on legal analysis and language. Part I addresses why students should learn to recognize expressions of bias in legal analysis. Part II discusses how bias typically appears in legal language, as well as how it may infect legal analysis and argument, and suggests ways of teaching students to recognize it in a legal writing course. Part III addresses challenges that may be faced in teaching the material, including suggestions for handling discussions of potentially sensitive subjects.

This articles discusses the course, Perspectives on Justice, which is a hybrid doctrinal and writing course. Through the power of narrative and scholarly writing, the course teaches students about various social justice issues and explores historical injustices and the way they were addressed through law, policy, and social movement. It ties this history into current issues to carry forward those movements and help students realize that injustices are not a "thing of the past."