1,720,959 research outputs found
Unpacking Clinical Scholarship: Why Clinics Start and How They Last
No full textThis paper provides a critique of a batch of 91 published clinical legal education journal articles systematically selected and analysed. The review was undertaken to identify factors that have been influential in the establishment and sustainability of clinical programmes in different jurisdictions. The review indicated that there were various positive and negative factors influencing the creation and sustainability of clinical programmes. Enabling factors were most frequently related to intervening conditions such as the availability of a healthy financial base upon which a clinical programme was built. Impeding factors were most frequently associated with intervening conditions such as resistance to clinical pedagogy. The systematic review of literature revealed a wealth of knowledge on key aspects to consider while founding a clinical programme. However, there are still critical knowledge gaps requiring our attention. To fill in the knowledge gaps identified through the review, this paper proposes that we consider undertaking empirical research on clinical legal education on a wider scale rather than just limiting our writing on personal experiences. Such an approach would result in writers adopting a more objective stance in narrating the benefits of clinical legal education and in the process help foster more and effective strategies on the creation and sustainability of clinical programmes
Clinical Pedagogy: a systematic review of factors influential in the establishment and sustainability of clinical programmes and a grounded theory explication of a clinical legal education case study in Zimbabwe
Full text linkBackground/purpose:
This thesis investigates the factors that have been influential in either promoting or impeding the establishment and sustainability of clinical legal education in Zimbabwe (Mkwebu, 2015; 2016). Previous work on clinical legal education in other jurisdictions suggest that clinical programmes within law schools can help law students gain practical lawyering skills essential for legal practice. Literature suggests that law clinics have the potential to provide a platform upon which indigent members of the community can access free legal advice. However, the cost of running clinical programmes has been found, amongst others, to be the most influential factor inhibiting the creation and expansion of clinical legal education. Prior to this doctoral study, there had never been any comprehensive study carried out to investigate clinical activity in Zimbabwe. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that, amongst other factors, the resource-intensive nature of clinical legal education is the highly influential factor in the establishment and sustainability of clinical programmes within law schools.
Research methodology:
The researcher adopted a systematic search strategy through the review question: What factors have been influential in the establishment and sustainability of clinical legal education? The search strategy undertaken between January 2014 and April 2014 resulted in the selection of a batch of 91 journal articles. Articles were analysed using a grounded theory coding system that identified several factors as having been influential in the establishment and sustainability of clinical programmes in other jurisdictions. To gain theoretical sensitivity in the field, the various factors identified from literature generated questions for exploration during fieldwork. Fieldwork commenced in Zimbabwe in May 2015 and lasted for three weeks. The legal aid clinic at Case A has a complement of five members of staff and they all participated in an audio-taped interview process. Transcripts were analysed using grounded theory.
Results and Discussion:
An analysis of the selected clinical scholarship identified 20 influential factors. Grounded in the data collected from Zimbabwe were 25 factors that have been influential in either promoting or inhibiting the expansion of clinical legal education at Case A. In general, the identified factors were broadly similar to the various factors identified from the systematic review undertaken before fieldwork commenced. However, the differential impact of factors in the Zimbabwean context was revealed, suggesting a more complex model.
Conclusions:
Firstly, the research findings support the notion that a systematic review is a method with benefits and could be used effectively in the field. Secondly, establishment and sustainability factors have been identified from the systematic review and from the data collected in Zimbabwe. Thirdly, the importance of the local context in the operation of these factors has been verified. Fourthly, sustainability is fragile and the researcher offers a series of recommendations drawn from literature. Developing receptivity to ideas from other interested stakeholders may be helped by adopting a robust institution-stakeholder partnership that fosters collaboration of ideas for sustainability as a framework
A Systematic Review of Literature on Clinical Legal Education: A Tool for Researchers in Responding to an Explosion of Clinical Scholarship
Full text linkIdentifying where my research, on influential factors to consider in the establishment and sustainability of clinical legal education programmes, fitted within the existing clinical scholarship was by no means an easy task hence the decision to undertake a systematic review of literature. The current explosion of clinical scholarship seem to have been influenced by Jerome Frank’s call for reform in legal education when in 1933, he asked “Why not a Clinical-Lawyer School?” (Frank, 1933) A constant construction of clinical scholarship is critical in understanding many of the facets of clinical legal education so as to sustain clinical programmes and foster new ones. Yet a ‘boom’ in literature scares the life out of many a scholar and novice researchers when attempting to find articles that specifically answer research questions. This paper therefore offers guidance in conducting a systematic literature review on clinical legal education through the use of a Grounded Theory methodology. Through a five- stage process that involved the formulation of a research question and protocol; the use of systematic methods to identify, select and critically appraise relevant journal articles, this paper outlines each formal methodological step in identifying and selecting journal articles for inclusion in answering the following research question: [What factors are influential in the establishment and sustainability of clinical legal education programmes in Zimbabwe?]. The numbers of selected articles were presented in a PRISMA flow diagram. A final selection of 91 journal articles was juxtaposed; integrated and tabulated to produce an overarching explanation which attempts to account for the range of findings (Mays et al., 2005a) of the review. Through the process of synthesis, I endeavoured to contribute significant added value to my review through an examination of the composite evidence base for similarities of the articles, whether related to the homogeneity or indeed their relatedness of findings. The type of epistemology I favour for my research has also been influenced (Carter and Little, 2007) partly by the methods and findings undertaken in this review. The paper concludes by suggesting that a systematic review method, rather than a narrative review, should be a researcher’s tool in responding to an explosion of clinical scholarship
The global clinical movement: Educating lawyers for social justice [Book review]
Full text linkedited by Frank S. Bloch [Oxford University Press, 2011, 400 pp., £46.80, (Hardback)
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Recommended from our members
Clinical Scholarship’s Contribution to the Global Clinical Movement: Progress Made and More to Do
No full textThis chapter investigates the areas of focus of clinical legal scholarship since 2011
The Hall of Mirrors: a teaching team talking about talking about reflection
Full text linkIn order to review the teaching and assessment of reflection within the Student Law Office (SLO) at Northumbria University, an integral consideration must be the insight into experiences and perspectives of those directly involved with the students: the clinical supervisors. Clinical supervisors at Northumbria University explored the reflective aspect of the SLO teaching and assessment over the course of four, one-hour group discussions. This paper explores the themes that emerged from the group discussions and offers a consideration of how issues of reflective practice can be addressed to optimise the teaching, learning and assessment of reflection
- …
