Editorial 

Exploring the why and how of clinic 

Elaine Hall 

Northumbria University, UK 

Elaine.Hall@northumbria.ac.uk  

 

In this issue of the IJCLE, we have a number of papers that illuminate the purposes 

and values of clinic.  'Clinic' is a term that covers very disparate activities, as Tribe 

Mkwebu's review of Frank Bloch's essential handbook reveals.  Bloch's book is a key 

reference point for clinical and justice educators and this review gives an overview 

of the material, which will enable readers to access the aspects they need more 

easily.  If you would like to contribute a book review, or a review of another 

resource, please contact me for a discussion. 

Four of the papers in this edition address the underlying pedagogies of clinical 

education and, in doing so, reveal the authors’ key beliefs about the educational and 

societal priorities of clinical educators.  Judith McNamara, Catherine Campbell and 

Evan Hamman explore the particular elements, potential and challenges of 

community lawyering, which combines pro bono ethos, lawyering skills and identity 

as a lawyer.  They locate their work with in the service learning pedagogic tradition, 

one which is useful in communicating the complexity and un-evenness of clinical 

education experience: students have a range of learning opportunities which they 

mailto:Elaine.Hall@northumbria.ac.uk


have to draw together themselves in order to construct their learning and their 

developing professional identity, a form of being and becoming that characterises 

autonomous and experiential learning (Fromm, 1955; Bryson and Hardy, 2012).   

This being and becoming is notoriously hard to track and so we are fortunate to have, 

in two linked papers, Rachel Spencer’s detailed analysis of the student experience of 

reflective writing highlighting the cognitive and emotional challenges for faculty and 

students.  These papers also emphasise the number and complexity of process skills 

and interpersonal development necessary for clinical learning and while work in this 

area has a long tradition, there has been a lack of clear guidance for teachers wanting 

to develop and assess these skills and attributes.  No longer! Richard Grimes gives 

us a fine-grained account of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in which the roles and 

processes are explained step by step. 

Alongside these pedagogical reflections we are fortunate also to have a rich example 

of organisational practice.  Nicola Antoniou and Patrick Hassan-Morlai have 

produced an account of the establishment of a new clinic at the University of East 

London which makes clear the links between the ideals of social justice and 

community engagement, the educational goals for students and the practical issues 

of governance.  This paper was originally presented at the IJCLE conference in 

Olomouc in July 2014 and several others from that fantastic meeting of nearly 300 

delegates from over 30 countries are currently in the review process.  The next 

conference will be held jointly with the Global Alliance for Justice Education at 



Anadolu University in Eskişehir, Turkey between 22nd and 28th of July, 2015.  The call 

for papers will be issued very soon. 

 

References 

Bryson C and Hardy C. (2012) The nature of academic engagement: what the 
students tell us. In: Solomonides, I. Reid, A., Petocz, P, ed. Engaging with Learning in 
Higher Education. London: Libri Publishing, , pp.25-46 

Fromm, E. (1955) The Sane Society. New York: Henry Holt & Company.