Cara R. Shaffer (Colorado), Context at the Periphery: The Rise of the Critical–Contextual Legal Education Reform Movement, 30 Cardozo J. Equal Rts. & Soc. Just. 55 (2023):

Despite challenges faced by Generation Z (“Gen Z”), research shows that they are resilient and deeply committed to impacting positive political and social change. This is no surprise. Gen Z students have been bombarded with an embroiled within polarized political messaging for years. This messaging is often partisan, balkanized, and delivered right to their iPhones. Indeed, forty-four percent of Gen Z reads no traditional new sources and receives all of their news from TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and similar sources. Further, the United States education system fails its students, both compared to other countries and to the country’s own historical standards. Scores in history, civics, and critical reading have decreased in recent years. Educators agree this may be, in part, because these contextual subjects are marginalized within the system. Moreover, we now have students entering law school who are the victims of reinvigorated regressive political moves to censure history, literature, and social context. Culturally, de-emphasis on humanities-based ideas and frameworks may be having an effect. Interestingly, recent polling by Nord Anglia revealed that only thirty-eight percent of Gen Z respondents believed critical thinking was one of the top skills for a successful career. Now, in the law school classroom, educators remark that this group of students face serious issues with critical thinking and contextualizing information.

In a 1997 article, a law professor charged that his law students appeared “disinterested, if not ignorant, about the critical idealism and wider social perspectives which once engaged, informed and mobilized significant numbers of their predecessors .…”  Inasmuch as the professor was correct at the time, this trend has certainly reversed. Today’s entering law students are predominantly Gen Z students who have grown up in an era of political and cultural crisis and upheaval. These students are inevitably engaged with the cultural, social, and political contexts that operate within the legal system. But do our students have the language, the tools, and the frameworks to analyze the law in context? Do we as legal educators provide those tools? And ought we? …

First, this Article asks what critical-contextual education is. Second, this Article briefly analyzes historical calls for critical-contextual reform in the first century of United States legal education and provides an in-depth analysis of the claims, language, and tenor of critical-contextual advocacy at two key points: in the late eighties to early nineties and in the post-recession aughts. Third, I will outline contemporary legal reform advocates' arguments for critical-cultural education benefits and outline key objections. Next, I will consider critical-contextual content as a tool to improve students' practical skills. Finally, I will consider the shape of our current movement towards critical-contextual education and ultimately advocate for increased attention to its inclusion across the curriculum.

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