Race Talks

– Students’ clay images
of the challenges they
will face as lawyers

Theory And Practice Of Workplace Equity

Introduction

This two-semester seminar, which meets as a class for three hours each week, examines cutting edge developments in workplace equity from a variety of disciplinary and professional perspectives. Sturm developed the seminar as an attempt to link her research interests in workplace equity with her teaching interests in developing change-oriented multi-racial learning communities. She created a teaching/research collaboration that could involve students, interdisciplinary faculty, and outside practitioners.

"This is the first class that has challenged the way that I think about many things. Usually, classes are one-dimensional in that they challenge the way that you think about that particular subject. However, this class makes me think about so many things in a different way and figure out if my previous mindset was due to cultural socialization or my own personal experiences."

Goals

This seminar strives to:

	develop a multi-racial intellectual community for public policy oriented students and those who question conventional legal roles.
	enable critical analysis of conventional legal approaches through multidisciplinary studies.
	encourage collaboration and experimentation with innovative strategies to pursue workplace equity.
	generate knowledge and develop professional accountability through reflective practice.

Getting Started

Sturm received a pilot grant to study innovative workplace practice. She also developed a research relationship with the Center for Gender in Organizations. The Columbia Law School Dean was quite supportive of Sturm’s efforts to integrate teaching and field research. Sturm was given adequate course credit (3 credits per semester), to develop and conduct the seminar. She developed preliminary research relationships with practitioners in New York and with potential research sites around the country. Many of the students have substantial pre-law school experience as union organizers, human resource professionals, sexual harassment trainers and EEOC investigators. A student from prior years serves as a teaching fellow.

See resource page for Course Procedures, Syllabus, and Lesson Plans

Classroom Methods

Students sign up for and facilitate two class sessions, work closely with the professor in developing lesson plans and facilitation strategies, and write regular reflection pieces. Students also meet outside of class with the professor to plan class facilitation and to develop field research projects.

The seminar involves innovative practitioners in this collaborative effort. These outsiders include plaintiffs’ counsel, in-house lawyers, organizers, ombuds officers, human resource professionals, and managers. They participate in the facilitation planning and in sessions that are quite interactive. These interchanges generate ideas for field research, expose students to the concerns of practitioners and foster the development of a practitioner network. These sessions provide an opportunity for students and practitioners to identify the assumptions underlying their current practice, using self-reflective inquiry to develop new frameworks. Students also learn interviewing and focus group research skills.

"I think that the power-sharing which has occurred throughout the seminar not only encouraged students to take responsibility for the success of the seminar, but also brought increased power to the instructor (an articulated goal of power-sharing). The respect for the instructor is heightened because of her willingness to treat students as peers and her expectations of our leadership in the classroom."

Active Learning: Field Research

During the first semester, faculty assists students in identifying sites for field research. Students are strongly encouraged to collaborate with each other on these projects. The field research projects provide a strong motivation for students to integrate their academic study with their research focus and method. They also provide concrete opportunities for learning to collaborate, both with other law students and with people in other disciplines and professional settings. The criteria for field research sites are:

	exploring the structural dimensions of a workplace equity issue
	investigating a transformative change initiative
	studying professionals who are role innovators

See resource page for examples of field research projects.

Faculty Role in Supervising Field Research

The process of developing and carrying out qualitative field research requires considerable faculty support. Sturm meets with students first individually and then in their research groups several times over the course of the first semester to help them select a field research project, frame a research question, and begin to develop the research methods they will use to carry out their field research. Researchers from other disciplines provide training in interviewing and observation. Students also learn about the requirements to obtain approval for Human Subjects Research, receive training and certification, and submit applications for Human Subjects Approval.

See resource page for materials on human subjects review process.

When It Works

Students rethink familiar assumptions about law, gaining insight into their own capacity to be role innovators. Students become better able to lead, to take intellectual risks, and to collaborate with colleagues. Several students continue their field research under the faculty member’s supervision, even after the seminar ends.

"I also tried to engage with my classmates outside of classroom discussions. At first, it was simply an effort to get to know them better. Then, after we began our discussions on political race, it evolved into an explicit effort to build bridges across racial, gender and class lines as part of an overall project to effect social change. "