Teaching Justice through Lived Experience: A Qualitative Study of Social Justice Awareness in High School Law Students’ Classroom Discussions

Abstract

This article aims to discover the social justice awareness in A-Level law students’ classroom discussions. Followed by qualitative research, A-level students studying Law were selected and used a loosely structured interview guide as tools for data collection. Based on purposive sampling strategy and saturation of data, the 12 law students were research participants. Collected data was analysed using thematic analysis and four themes namely ‘Developing Awareness of Inequality by Analysing Cases’, ‘Dealing with Conflicts: what the law says and what's morally right’, ‘Developing an Understanding of Marginalized Groups’ and ‘Figuring out One’s Role in Justice Delivery’ were extracted. It concludes that simply learning about law goes beyond understanding legality and touches on developing morality and compassion for others. It is recommended that involvement of students in critical reflection about the cases they read and discuss in the class room set up, may enhance students’ interest and knowledge of legal studies.