Productive Horizontal Learning: A Study of Law Students' Engagement in Informal Peer Colloquia

Abstract

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) though in its youth, is perceived by many as transforming the academy. Will the transformation of the academy promised by SoTL be a mere shifting of priorities from research in the disciplines to research in pedagogy? Or will SoTL pursue transformation of the conception of teaching and learning whereby the commons influence our identities as knowers and actors engaged in scholarship for the purposes of transformation and growth on local and global scales? Our purpose is to explore whether the scholarship of teaching and learning, as represented in literature associated with SoTL, is being utilized for transformative or transgressive (hooks, 1994) educational practices. What does a review of literature identified as SoTL reveal about the utilization of the commons and the transformative practice of SoTL? Is SoTL playing its role in promoting education that is responsive to the sociopolitical climates in which teaching and learning occur?