Influences apparent in undergraduate course design

This paper considers the initial stages of undergraduate law degree design and investigates influences such as those of professional identity, institutional culture, or wider (legal) educational paradigms. The paper investigates these influences, where they are evident, and the role they might play and present an initial analysis of why this investigation might be important, both in the context of holistic approaches to student learning, and in the wider positioning of undergraduate law degrees in the current climate of change.
This is presented at the initial stages of future research looking at this cultural construction of courses from the perspectives of the individuals and teams that design those courses, considering why courses are designed in the way that they are, and whether there are some influences that are perceived to be stronger than others. The paper will present some initial analysis drawing on previous research on culture and identities in legal education (Cownie, 2004), and upon wider research on academic tribes and territories (Becher & Trowler, 2001; Trowler et al, 2012), considering the legal education “territory” and conflicting paradigms.