Equal Treatment and the Reproduction of Inequality

A way of seeing is also a way of not seeing

Equal Treatment and the Reproduction of Inequality

A way of seeing is also a way of not seeing

Understanding the role of epistemological beliefs in post-graduate studies: motivation and conceptions of learning in first-year law students

textThe complexity of legal education provides an interesting backdrop for examining students’ conceptions about learning, including their epistemological beliefs about learning and instruction. Students typically are categorized as more or less sophisticated in their beliefs about the simplicity and certainty of knowledge, the control and speed of learning, and the source of knowledge. Research has described students’ epistemological development either as unidimensional and occurring in sequential stages or as multidimensional and represented as a system of dimensions. In the latter view, beliefs are independent, meaning students can be sophisticated in one belief and less sophisticated in another, and, because of the asynchronous nature of beliefs, can simultaneously hold opposing beliefs of the same dimension. Yet, epistemological beliefs researchers do not often consider how students’ asynchronous epistemological beliefs, even their less sophisticated ones, are used in productive ways. This study examined these issues with first-year law students, chosen because they represent learners who have demonstrated prior academic success and yet are now novices in a complex and highly competitive learning environment. Fifty-eight first-year law students completed surveys of epistemological beliefs (5 dimensions), motivations (intrinsic and extrinsic goal orientations, self-efficacy, and effort management), approaches to learning (surface, deep, and achievement orientations), and need for cognition (students’ preference for engaging in complex cognitive tasks). Results demonstrated that first-year law students varied within the upper half of the total epistemological beliefs scale and ranged from less relativistic to more relativistic. A cluster analysis was performed and resulted in a three-cluster solution with significant multivariate differences between cluster groups broadly described as less, moderate, and more relativistic. Significant differences between cluster groups in their ratings of extrinsic motivation, surface approaches to learning, achievement motivation, and need for cognition were found. A more detailed understanding of law students’ conceptions of their learning experiences was obtained by interviewing three students, one from each of the cluster groups, near the completion of their final year of law school. Interviews supported the idea that while students varied in their epistemological beliefs, they had all successfully made use of their more and less sophisticated beliefs to accomplish their learning goals.Educational Psycholog

“Too Pure an Air:” Somerset’s Legacy From Anti-slavery to Colorblindness

Canonical cases like Somerset v. Stewart resonate beyond their particular historical context because they change or crystallize critical legal and political debates. Analyzing the legacy of such cases is a complex task, fraught not only with the difficulties attendant to knowing history, but also with the conundrum of reading the past through the present. Somerset\u27s Case has left particularly complicated legacies, partly because of its influence on both sides of the Atlantic. Of course, English law has always shaped American legal doctrine. But because the question at the heart of the case entailed the status of a slave-James Somerset-whose master had brought him to England from the Americas, the transatlantic character and significance of the decision was embedded within the facts of the case itself. Adjudicating the controversy in Somerset required negotiating slavery as a transnational enterprise immersed in multiple bodies of law. Part of the challenge in assessing Somerset then is, that from its inception, it was a case that had multiple audiences and legal trajectories-speaking both directly and implicitly to the issue of slavery and freedom, in England and in the colonies. Given this complex history, it is fair to say that there never was a singular legacy of the case, and certainly not one that can be articulated now. Rather, there are multiple and conflicting trajectories which culminate in the case, becoming one of the most significant in both American and English law