Keeping It Real : Developing a Culturally and Personally Relevant Legal Writing Curriculum

With increasing law school student-body diversity comes the need to create teaching materials that build on students’ backgrounds and life experiences. Educators should “keep it real” for students by using personally and culturally relevant materials. Research suggests that using relevant materials results in improved academic success, an enhanced teacher-student relationship, empowered learners, more equal learning opportunities, and better preparation for practice in a multi-ethnic and pluralistic society. In this article the authors introduce and explain the concept of a culturally and personally relevant curriculum, articulate its goals, describe how they applied those goals to the legal writing curriculum at the historically black university where they teach, and suggest methods for developing relevant curriculum at other schools