Beyond deficit thinking: towards more inclusive education and diversity policy at Erasmus School of Law

Context

EUR, and Erasmus School of Law (ESL) in particular, has a diverse student population (such as in terms of gender, ethnicity, socio-economic and cultural background). Although promoting diversity is high on the agenda, education and day-to-day dealings with students still seem to be stamped to some extent by 'deficit thinking' (a different profile is seen as a 'defect' that needs to be fixed in some way). With this project, Nina and Willem-Jan aimed to detect and address the implicit bumps that such an approach entails. Thus, they wanted to help promote a more inclusive approach, in which all students are given equal opportunities and unnecessary dropouts or lagging study results are reduced. 

Deliverables

Nina and Willem-Jan collected data by means of multi-method research: a longitudinal interview study for which they followed several dozen law students during their bachelor, focus groups with law students and focus groups with law teachers. Based on this data, they wrote a report for ESL with results of their research and recommendations for teaching practice. With the data collected, Nina and Willem-Jan, together with Alma Bešić, also wrote an article on law school socialisation, published in 2024 in the journal Legal Ethics. 

In addition, they presented their findings to colleagues at conferences in the Netherlands and abroad (including the International ELS conference in Amsterdam, the Law and Society Association Annual Meeting in Lisbon (Portugal), the annual meetings of the Association for the Social Science Study of Law in Leuven (Belgium) and Amsterdam, during the lecture series 'Reconsidering the Socio-legal Gaze' of the Van Vollenhoven Instituut (Leiden) and at a CLI Research Lunch). 

They also brought together international experiences with and insights on inclusive legal education in a special issue of Erasmus Law Review. This special issue includes five contributions discussing inclusive legal education initiatives from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Also, Nina and Willem-Jan published about their research in Ars Aequi. And they wrote a contribution for the Elgar Concise Encyclopaedia of Legal Education (expected publication in 2025). Other international publications are in preparation.