‘Placing’ the other: final year law students’ ‘imagined’ experience of rural and regional practice within the law school context

Main Article Content

Trish Karen Mundy

Abstract

This paper discusses the partial findings from a research study involving a narrative analysis of in-depth interviews with twelve final year law students. The research explored student attitudes to, and perceptions of, legal practice in rural, regional and remote (RRR) communities – that is, their ’imagined experience’. The research findings suggests that, at least in the context of the non-regional law school, the rural/regional is both absent and ‘other’, revealing the ‘urban-centric’ nature of legal education and its failure to adequately expose students to rural and regional practice contexts that can help to positively shape their ‘imagined’ experience. This paper argues that all law schools must take up the challenge of rural inclusiveness by integrating a sense of ‘place-consciousness’ into the law curriculum.

Article Details

Section
Articles (PEER REVIEWED)
Author Biography

Trish Karen Mundy, University of Wollongong

Lecturer, Faculty of Law

University of Wollongong

References

Law Council of Australia and Law Institute of Victoria, Report into the Rural, Regional and Remote Areas Lawyers Survey (July 2009) 42

Trish Mundy, Recruitment and Retention of Lawyers in Rural, Regional and Remote Communities, (July 2008) Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre:

Denise Beatel, Lenore Adie, Suzanne Hudson, ‘Promoting rural and remote teacher education in Australia through the Over the Hill Project’ (2011) 18(2) The International Journal of Learning 377;

Graeme Lock, Jo-Anne Reid, Bill Green, Wendy Hastings, Maxine Cooper, Simone White, ‘Researching Rural-Regional (Teacher) Education in Australia’ (2009) 19(2) Education in Rural Australia 31;

Simone White, Jodie Kline, Wendy Hastings, Graeme Lock, ‘Renewing rural and regional teacher education curriculum Final Report 2012: ;

EJ Bell, G MacCarrick, L Parker and R Allen, ‘Lost in Translation’? Developing assessment criteria that value rural practice (2005) 5 Rural and Remote Health 420.

Urbis Keys Young, 20011 Profile of the Solicitors of NSW, The Law Society of New South Wales, February 2012;

Suzie Forell, Michael Cain & Abigail Gray ‘Recruitment and retention of lawyers in regional, rural and remote New South Wales’, (Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, September 2010);

Legal Aid Commission of NSW, ‘Review of the NSW Community Legal Centres Funding Program Final Report’, (June 2006);

G Ferguson, ‘Bush lawyers – the problem facing regional and rural Queensland’ (2004) 24(11) Proctor;

Law Society of NSW, ‘Law society warns of lawyers shortage in rural areas’, ABC Regional News, (18 February 2002).

Trish Mundy, ‘Attracting and Retaining Lawyers: a problem for rural, regional and remote communities’ (2009) 34(1) Alternative Law Journal 32.

Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, Access to Justice, (December 2009) [2.104].

Standing Committee on Regional Development, ‘Attracting and Retaining Skilled People in Regional Australia: A Practitioner’s Guide’, (Circular 17.11, Western Australian Department of Local Government and Regional Development, February 2004) 1.

Jill Sinclair Bell, ‘Narrative Inquiry’ (2002) 36(2) TESOL Quarterly 207.

Gary Barkhuizen, ‘Imagined Identities: Preimmigrants’ narratives on language and identity’ (2006) 10(3) International Journal of Bilingualism 277

Mark Hughes, ‘Imagined futures and communities: older lesbian and gay people’s narratives on health and aged care’ (2008) 20(1-2) Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services 167.

Torill Moen, ‘Reflections on the Narrative Research Approach’ (2006) 5(4) International Journal of Qualitative Methods 4.

Catherine Kohler Riessman, ‘Narrative Analysis’ In: Narrative, Memory and Everyday Life’ (University of Huddersfield 2005) 1.

Donald E Polkinghorne, Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences (State University of New York Press, 1988); Martin Cortazzi, Narrative Analysis, (The Falmer Press, 1993)

Catherine Kohler Riessman, Narrative Analysis Qualitative Research Methods Series, (Sage Publications, Volume 30, 1993) 15.

Janine A Overcash, ‘Narrative research: a review of methodology and relevance to clinical practice’ (2003) 48(2) Critical Reviews in Oncology Hematology 180.
Robert Miles, Carmel Marshall, John Rolfe & Sally

Noonan, ‘Attraction and Retention of Professionals to Regional Areas’ (2006) 12(2) Australasian Journal of Regional Studies 12

National Association of Community Legal Centres, Project Proposal, Law Graduates for CLCs in Regional Areas, March 2008-March 2012, Year One: Feasibility Study, Sydney, March 2008.

Dorothy Adams, ‘Review of the Regional Solicitor Scheme’ (Legal Aid Queensland, June 2007)

Legal Aid Commission of New South Wales, Rural Client Services Strategy, 9 January 2007, 2 http://www.legalaid.nsw.gov.au/data/portal/00000005/public/60577001168299957437.pdf (accessed 3.4.08)

Law Society of Western Australia, Country Lawyers Graduate Program, http://www.lawsocietywa.asn.au/index.php?p=1

Denise Beatel, Lenore adie, Suzanne Hudson, ‘Promoting rural and remote teacher education in Australia through the Over the Hill Project’ (2011) 18(2) The International Journal of Learning 377;

Simone White, ‘Place Consciousness? Sustaining Rural Schooling through Place-consciousness in Teacher Education’ (2008) 23(7) Journal of Research in Rural Education 6.

Giddings, Hook and Nielsen, ‘Legal Services in rural communities: Issues for clients and lawyers’ (2001) 26(2) Alternative Law Journal 5.

Paul Martin and Amanda Kennedy, ‘Creating network based innovations for improving the supply and welfare of rural health professionals’ (Paper presented at the 10th National Rural Health Conference, Cairns, Australia, 17-20 May 2009) 2.

Simone White, Jodie Kline, Wendy Hastings, Graeme Lock, ‘Renewing rural and regional teacher education curriculum Final Report 2012:

David Gruenewald, ‘Foundations of Place: A Multidisciplinary Framework for Place-conscious Education’ (2003) 40(3) American Education Research Journal 619.

Molly Towns O’Brien, ‘Facing down the gladiators: addressing law school’s hidden adversarial curriculum’ (2011) 37(1) Monash Law Review 43.

Fran Gibson and F Rochford, ‘Dispute resolution in rural and regional Victoria’, (2010) 21 Australian Dispute Resolution Journal 111, 115).

Simone White, Bill Green, Jo-Anne Reid, Graeme Lock, Wendy Hastings, and Maxine Cooper, ‘Teacher education for rural communities: a focus on 'incentives', in T Aspland, (eds), ATEA 2008: Teacher Educators at Work: What works and where is the evidence? Proceedings of the 2008 Australian Teacher Education Association Conference, Australian Teacher Education Association, Melbourne, Vic, 6.

Andrew Gorman-Murray, Kate Darian-Smith and Chris Gibson, ‘Scaling the Rural’ (2008) 45 Australian Humanities Review 37, 37.

Trish Mundy, ‘A HECS Rebate? Ways to attract and retain graduate lawyers in rural, regional and remote communities’ (2010) 35(2) Alternative Law Journal 99.

Melinda Brown, ‘A Country Practice’ (2000) 74(9) Law Institute Journal 15;

Rachael Castles, ‘Recruitment and retention of young lawyers in remote, rural and regional Queensland’(2003) 23(3) Proctor 32.

Cassandra Sharpe, ‘The Extreme Makeover’ Effect of Law School: Students Being Transformed by Stories’ (2005) 12(1) Texas Wesleyan Law Review 233.

John Francis, Gumboot Practice (Dalesman Publishing Co Ltd, 1989).

Amanda Kennedy, ‘The Rural and Regional Lawyer’ (Curriculum Module 2, Re Thinking Law Curriculum: strategies to prepare law graduates for practice in rural and regional areas, July 2012) 3.