Private Lives: Confronting the inherent difficulties of reflective writing in clinical legal education

Abstract

The use of reflective writing has long been recognised as an important component of clinical legal education pedagogy. However, current literature about reflective writing exposes a gap about student perceptions of reflective writing. This article provides an analysis of the results of formal qualitative research that was conducted into student perceptions of reflective writing in the clinical legal education context. The research was designed to investigate whether students perceived any benefit from reflective writing and what difficulties they actually encountered in the process of writing which is particularly different to other forms of academic assessment. The article explores the exact nature of the difficulties experienced by students and suggests an improved pedagogy of reflective writing in the clinical legal education context. The article offers several suggestions and recommendations as to how this might be achieved.