Conference Agenda

Reflective practice is ‘the active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it” (1910, 6). However, how we reflect and the mechanism for reflection can result in different pedagogical acquisition.

This paper will therefore propose reflection of experiences in the context of a service-learning module through a specific lens and framework, considering both micro and macro levels of understanding. This type of reflection not only entails considering what is happening at the level of experience but also what external social, economic and political structures may be influencing the experience and consequent action or inaction.

The paper will draw upon the ontological and epistemological conceptual foundations of critical realism (Bhaskar,1978). Whilst this has commonly been used for methodological underpinnings in research, it may equally be used as a method of critical interpretation, reflection and practice. It acknowledges that whilst agency is causal in what happens, structures condition how people live (Danermark et al. 2005). As confirmed by Roy Bhaskar:

“… people in their conscious human activity, for the most part unconsciously reproduce (or occasionally, transform) the structures that govern their substantive activities of production. Thus people do not marry to reproduce the nuclear family, or work to reproduce the capitalist economy. But it is nevertheless the unintended consequence (and inexorable result) of, as it is also the necessary condition for their activity (Bhaskar 1989).

These macro level reflective considerations conceptually mediated through theory, can provide different explanations for individual action. For example, sociological theory such as the value spheres propounded by Max Weber (1978) and Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital and field (Bourdieu 1977) can help elicit influences on action/inaction. In legal education, theory provides explanation why a formalistic doctrinal approach takes precedent over more experiential approaches. It helps understand why legal education can result in an egress over time from an interest in people and emotions (Daicoff 2004), the norms and conventions of general society (Mertz 2007) and a focus on rationality to the exclusion of emotion (Poole 2011).

Adopting this philosophical lens to service-learning therefore deepens reflection to not only consider the observable world constructed through our perspectives, experiences and reflections but also the structures which cause these observable events. In legal education, this allows for consideration of not only what the law is and what it does but also what influences it and why?