Using empirical research methods in legal education
Pat Leighton, University of Glamorgan
On 9-10 July 2001 a workshop on developing empirical research skills was held at the University of Glamorgan. It was attended by 20 law teachers, drawn from all parts of the UK. Some had undertaken projects that had explored core aspects of legal education and had led to major publications. Others had limited or no experience of undertaken a research project, but had ideas they wanted to pursue.
Day 1 was devoted to exploring general issues, such as research objectives, identifying 'targets' for research findings, such as policymakers in legal education, and the important question of effective dissemination of research findings. The workshop members were urged to consider alternative methods to the traditional research report backed by journal articles, such as creative use of websites, presentations and use of the popular media.
Day 1 continued with examination of quantitative methods and practical exercises on questionnaire design, distribution and various techniques and new ideas for responses analysis. The evening of Day 1 was spent combining a boat trip across Cardiff Bay, and dinner in the Tiger Bay Cafe with continuing in-depth discussion of key research issues!
Day 2 was devoted to qualitative methods. The range of potential methods was considered, and workshop members had the opportunity to hone their interviewing skills, using both face to face and telephone interviews. The complex issues around analysis of qualitative findings were considered but were left for another time for detailed consideration.
The workshop was built around a hypothetical project on student feedback on the performance of teaching staff and the delivery of courses. Practical questions around the most effective way to research such a topic were at the heart of the workshop, as were the ethical and human rights concerns about aspects of the hypothetical project.
The workshop was financially supported by UKCLE's Project Development Fund and took place as part of the work of the Association of Law Teachers' Legal Education Research Project (now LERN), which has co-ordinated several research projects in legal education since 1992. Included in its activities over the years has been a number of workshops to develop research skills, though usually as more specialised one day sessions.
The presentation at the LILI conference explained the objectives and focus of the Glamorgan workshop, but also included some reflections on the nature of research using empirical methods more generally. They were grouped under the following headings.
The recency and still comparative rarity of applying empirical methods to legal research, including legal education research
In 1983 a two day conference was held in London to consider research in law schools in the then polytechnic sector of higher education. Presenters spoke of the need to develop inter-disciplinary research, to collaborate with other law schools in research activities and considered issues around the support and management of research itself. Particularly interesting discussions emerged out of a presentation by Brenda Barrett entitled Funding research:a question of image, where the problems faced by researchers aiming to undertake less traditional work outside the universities were explored. At the conference I made the case for empirical research, especially in legal education, though I did highlight some of the pitfalls of empirical work. The conference is reported in the Law Teacher (1984).
Some of the questions that emerged during discussion in 1983 still appear valid. The conference generally revealed a lack of confidence by researchers, perhaps in part caused by a lack of clarity about whether we are truly part of the social science tradition or more comfortable with scholarship and research more typical of the humanities. Indeed, it is still too soon to know how the 2001 RAE panel viewed research outputs based on empirical work and, say, interdisciplinary or innovative research. While strategies are developed within law schools to match what are thought to be the priorities of the RAE panels these remain important questions.
The continuing isolation of research into legal education from most research into education more generally
There are, of course, many exceptions to this impression, but it is possible to argue that legal education research could benefit from greater involvement in events, publications and activities of education researchers more generally. Similarly, closer links could be established with researchers into teaching and managing, for example, accountancy, architecture, medicine and social work education. One suspects considerable commonality of issues and concerns.
A conservatism in research strategies and methods in legal education
During the Glamorgan workshop it was interesting to observe the discussion topics which workshop members were comfortable or less comfortable with. There was most comfort with the type of research questions that aimed to identify 'how many', 'where', 'what' etc, and less comfort with the 'why' type of research or the type of research which challenges policy and decision makers.
At the LILI conference there was considerable interest in legal education research and a number of possible projects were considered in outline. There is a need for further activities to develop research skills.
