Search results

The paper enriches the understanding of the principal challenges faced in future lawyers' education in Mexico considering global trends, particularly from the perspective of skills creation in diverse areas of legal practice.

The framework used draws on trends identified within an international collaborative research study in which both authors participated, titled “Developing a Blueprint for Global Legal Education”. This current paper stems from the premise that these recommendations can be further developed and better utilised if explored within a specific context. The methodology designed for this research consisted of two main components: a thorough analysis of the norms that regulate the education system and the professional practice in Mexico, and an extensive literature review that provided insights into the state of global trends in legal education.

This paper reveals that in Mexico having a well-designed and comprehensive legal framework is the first step to promote the creation of high-quality educational models.

The study analyses the current situation in Mexico within four global trends: (1) regulation of legal education and access to the profession; (2) building professional practice skills; (3) internationalisation of education and (4) incorporation of technology and responsible innovation.

The reflections are intended to promote better training of law students in the skills required to face the various challenges that the legal profession currently involves. This is under an approach that analyses global challenges and identifies the best practices to connect learning processes with in-demand professional skills.

The global Clinical Legal Education (CLE) movement transcends borders as law teachers worldwide try to inculcate law students and future legal practitioners with social justice values. One method of achieving this is through developing reflective practitioners. Kolb, finding common ground in the work of Lewin, Dewey, and Piaget, formulated the four stages in the experiential development of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experiment. Although Kolb’s model is used in legal education literature, students may not be provided with the relevant conceptual tools required to engage in reflective practice. This often results in students providing subjective analysis of their work, which fails to fully contribute to their educational experience. One of the reasons for omitting analytical tools is that reflective practice suffers from a lack of conceptual clarity. According to Kinsella, the “concept remains elusive, is open to multiple interpretations, and is applied in a myriad of ways in educational and practice environments”. A further issue hindering reflective practice relates to Donald Schön’s critique of the positivist approach adopted by law schools.

This chapter will apply a human rights framework to CLE to develop reflective practitioners. The two main reasons for this are, first, human rights as formulated by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights are universal, interrelated, and indivisible and, second, reflection based on these universal human rights values will benefit cross-jurisdictional societies in assisting vulnerable clients affected by emerging implied and direct human rights challenges.

This chapter considers the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) within the United States as a network of flows and feedback loops that connects the education and delinquency systems. This system is heavily biased to funnel students with disabilities, disproportionately from low-income minority families, away from productive educational outcomes through punitive, exclusionary, and restrictive measures that too often result in incarceration. Congress intended special education and disability rights laws to ameliorate injustice and ensure long-term positive outcomes for all students. Through a systems theory perspective, this chapter outlines key leverage points inherent in disability rights laws, which can and should be activated to interrupt and reverse the STPP. Many provisions within the law are overlooked or inadequately enacted within current educational practices. The authors present problem-solving strategies, rooted in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other disability rights laws, for educators, juvenile justice advocates, and policymakers to use in order to reduce school exclusion and incarceration of vulnerable youth and to provide education opportunity for all students.

More than 80 percent of contemporary nation-states have founded educational ministries and compulsory education laws over the past two centuries (UNESCO, 2000). How modern state systems originated and have expanded is one of the classic questions of cross-national studies. A major reason, apart from structural variation that many social scientists observe, is that modern state systems are nearly universal. For instance, the structural arrangements of educational ministries and legal elements of compulsory education laws are fairly similar across nations, though the ages for free compulsory education vary and the names of educational ministries have changed over time (e.g. ministries of vocational education and training, secondary and special higher education, and adult education). The historical construction of educational ministries and laws are critical instances to illuminate the organizational reality of state action, reflecting modern state systems that have been deeply institutionalized throughout the world.¹

The purpose of this research is to describe the teaching style of the faculty of a Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) organization in a Midwestern state and the degree and method of application of adult learning principles by the POST faculty. The move of law enforcement to community‐oriented policing (COP) requires that police officers develop communication and problem‐solving skills. The application of adult learning principles in law enforcement education can help prepare officers for their role in COP.

In this mixed method/descriptive study, 85 instructors completed the Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS) and 21 instructors participated in in‐depth interviews.

Major findings in the study related to POST instructors' strong preference for a teacher‐centered style of teaching as measured by PALS and a disconnect between what instructors do in the classroom and what they feel is effective instruction.

Offers suggestions related to the nature of the field and for instructor development. Recommendations were made related to professional development and the application of adult learning principles to law enforcement education and training.

This research fills a void in the field by beginning to give a formal description of teaching style in law enforcement education and training. It also details the value of applying adult learning theory in law enforcement instruction and the implications for community‐oriented policing.

Federal and state laws exert an important influence on the education of students with emotional and behavioral disorders. The most important of these laws is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. States and school districts must adhere to the requirements of IDEA when educating students with disabilities in special education programs. In addition to IDEA, other federal and state laws also affect special education programs for students with EBD. Two other important areas are laws that address (a) supervisory responsibilities of teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders and (b) issues of bullying in schools. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and to examine the ways that this and other important laws affect the education of students with EBD and their teachers.

This chapter describes the status of past and current special education, inclusive education, and Low-Incidence Disabilities (LID) in South Korea by introducing historical background, legal development, and current trend. Four main areas related to special education in South Korea are highlighted: the historical background and legal development of special education; current laws relating to special education; inclusive education and LID; and the future of LID support in South Korea. This chapter will provide valuable information for those who want to become more knowledgeable about the current status of special education and inclusive education for learners with LID in South Korea.

In recent years there has been a significant increase in the involvement of Australian schools with various aspects of the law and this has led to a number of claims that education has become legalised. A major consequence of this development is the need for principals to have a level of legal literacy sufficient to identify when a legal problem is developing in their school. Moreover, given the increased involvement of schools with the law, there would seem to be a need for principals to introduce preventive legal risk management strategies into school policies and practices. However, to implement such programmes, principals require a sound knowledge of those aspects of the law that they are required to manage. A recent study of some 300 principals from government schools in Queensland raises serious questions, however, regarding the level of principals’ professional knowledge of the law. This paper examines the concept of the legalisation of education and the extent to which school principals’ professional knowledge is adequate to meet the demands the law is making of them.

Legal information work has expanded with the growth in knowledge management and emergence of a new type of knowledge/information manager, the professional support lawyer. This study aims to investigate competency requirements for library‐based information work in UK law firms, including the specialist subject knowledge required, methods of development and the impact on information professionals of professional support lawyers.

The investigation used a pragmatic mixed‐methods approach, including a mainly quantitative questionnaire, administered online to 64 legal information professionals, followed by eight semi‐structured interviews and a focus group with four participants. A literature review informed the questionnaire design and contextualised the findings.

The survey confirmed a broad range of competency requirements and clarified the specific subject knowledge needed. Participants favoured a varied combination of formal, and informal learning. Most participants also wanted specialised professional education for the sector.

The nature of the sample and use of categorised questions were limiting factors, partly compensated by inviting open‐ended comments and follow‐up interviews. A larger study using qualitative methods with professional support lawyers and fee‐earners would provide a fuller more rounded picture.

The findings indicate that the subject knowledge needed for legal information work in law firms is more extensive than for other sectors and suggest that information science departments should strengthen and extend curriculum content to reflect this need.

The study has advanced the understanding of the competency, education and training needs of UK legal information professionals, challenging assumptions about academic/professional qualifications and illuminating the blend of competencies needed.