Abstract
In Spring 2009, I embarked on a project to introduce the students in my first year, six-credit Civil Procedure sequence to the ife of the lawyer in community, representing people, as most of them would ultimately live it.' My inipiration was my eghtyear practice experience in Owensboro, Kentucky (pop. 50,000).' My tools were course desgn elements rooted in the lived experiences of individual itgants and prior students' contributions, which would demonstrate that our classroom was a "community of memory" with a past, present, and future. Result: My most engaged class yet; vibrant reforms of m course desgn and delivey; improvements in my own knowledge; and many students who have remained closely attached to me even after graduation. I did not expect that in creating community we would upend the classroom hierarchy and create dense, complicated interpersonal networks. The teaching assistants and prior students who participated in class activities demonstrated that the past and therefore the future were verj real. Thej shortened the distance between the classroom organization ' status tiers and formed dnamic multjplex relationships with students. Our community became a livng, breathing, evolvin institutionjust like the communities I had hoped to mimic.
Custom Citation
Jennifer E. Spring, 'It's All About the People: Hierarchy, Networks and Teaching Assistants in a Civil Procedure Classroom Community' (2013) 9(1) Socio-Legal Review 121
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.55496/UIJE5814
