Abstract
To reckon with structural racism in legal education, legal educators collectively must do much more than we have done thus far. A true reckoning will occur only once we provide an education that ensures racially minoritized students can learn free of the harms of traditional legal education, and that all students are equipped to contribute to the dismantlement of structural racism in the law and legal profession. A pedagogy that centers these two goals counteracts the effects of structural racism while also creating conditions for its dismantlement, making it a pedagogy of antiracism.
This article is about moving toward the dismantlement of structural racism by replacing traditional legal education with antiracist legal education. To that end, it provides legal educators a holistic methodology for pursuing a pedagogy of antiracism, together with concrete strategies for operationalizing that methodology. It does so by using legal writing education as a case study, thus describing a set of thoroughly concretized pedagogical choices with cross-disciplinary relevance to al/facets of legal education, from doctrine to skills, to mentoring, advising, and administration.
The holistic methodology this article describes takes shape through a framework composed of five dimensions: who we are, the psychological and cognitive experiences of our students, the substance we teach, the teaching processes we employ, and our structures of accountability. Applying this methodological framework will assist legal educators to design and implement urgently needed reforms to curriculum, classroom practices, assessment, grading, and many other aspects of the legal educational enterprise.
Indeed, this work is urgent because this pedagogy-and the concrete strategies offered here-are core to our mission. It proceeds from the conviction that, through a holistic vision and a methodical approach, we have the potential to live up to our obligations to our students and, in turn, contribute to structural racism's dismantlement.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Recommended Citation
Doron Samuel-Siegel, Operationalizing a Pedagogy of Antiracism in Legal Education, 35 Berkeley Latine J. L. & Pol'y 38 (2025).
