Middlesex University Research Repository An open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Schatzberger, Elliot ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8112-8484 (2018) Legal educator as translator: a critical reflection. [Doctorate by Public Works] Final accepted version (with author’s formatting) This version is available at: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/24341/ Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this work are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners unless otherwise stated. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. 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See also repository copyright: re-use policy: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/policies.html#copy ‘Legal Educator as Translator: a critical reflection’ Submitted to Middlesex University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Professional Studies by Public Works Elliot J. Schatzberger BA(Hons), PGDipLaw, Barrister-at-Law Date of submission: May 2018 1 Disclaimer: The views expressed in this research project are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the supervisory team, Middlesex University, or the examiners of this work Elliot Schatzberger May 2018 Middlesex University 2 Acknowledgements and thanks Firstly, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my supervisor Dr Kate Maguire for her insight, encouragement and guidance. Kate not only enabled me to ‘see the light’ in relation to critical reflection but also helped me to create a work which seeks to show that it is possible to transform the horrific into a creative, dynamic action that is a tangible demonstration that the darkness of 20th Century Fascism did not win. I would also like to thank my Head of Department and doctoral consultant Professor Laurent Pech for his tireless support and allowing me the time to make this project happen; to my colleague, mentor and friend Dr Lilian Miles for helping me see through the lens and to my colleague and friend Susan Scott-Hunt for sowing the seed which was the genesis of this work. I would also like to thank my amazing wife Ewa and our incredible Emilia for their love, support and patience. Our warm and loving home-life has contributed to this work more than either will ever know. Finally, this work is dedicated to my family, especially my late mother, father and grandparents. It struck me that my final draft was completed on the very day of what would have been my mother’s 80th birthday. Without my lineage and their history, this work would never have been written. Also, of course my brother Simon and sister Julie. It is a tribute to their resilience and to their survival, and a tribute to all who are able to do more than just survive. The magnitude of the human spirit cannot and should not ever be underestimated. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND THANKS 3 LIST OF PUBLIC WORKS 5 SUMMARY OF MY INTENTIONS 6-7 METHODOLOGY AND THE THEORETICAL LENS 8 CRITICAL THEORY 8-11 SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORY 11-15 CURRENT PEDAGOGY IN HIGHER EDUCATION; A CONTEXTUALISATION. 15-25 PART 1: CRITICAL REFLECTION 26 THE SEARCH FOR MEANING 26-29 OUT OF AUSTRIA 30-34 DUTCH COURAGE AND THE BLITZ SPIRIT 35-37 THE FAMILY SCHATZBERGER 38-41 THE ROAD NOT TAKEN 42-45 FROM WIG TO WIG 46-49 PART 2: PUBLIC WORKS 50 LIST OF PUBLIC WORKS 51 PUBLIC WORKS THEMES 52-55 1. A REPORT ON THE ‘ABUSE OF POWER, PROCESS AND LAW; MALAWI’ 56-71 2. ‘TEACHING LAW – AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH’ 72-83 3. TEXT BOOK ‘LAND LAW – YOUR BLUEPRINT TO LEARNING’ 84-87 4. ‘THE IMMIGRATION ACT 2014’ JOURNAL ARTICLE 88-90 5. KAZAKHSTAN JUDICIAL TRAINING 91-93 FINAL THOUGHTS 94-95 BIBLIOGRAPHY 96-107 APPENDICES: APPENDIX I: MALAWI REPORT 108-119 APPENDIX II: LAND LAW TEXTBOOK; INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 120-127 APPENDIX III: LAND LAW TEXTBOOK; SKILLS CHAPTER 128-136 APPENDIX IV: LAND LAW TEXTBOOK; LAND LAW CHAPTER 1 137-159 APPENDIX V: IMMIGRATION ACT 2014 JOURNAL ARTICLE 160-181 4 List of Public Works 1. Report on the ‘Abuse of power, process and law; Malawi’; created and developed under the auspices of and published by the Criminal Bar Association [UK] (2004) 2. ‘Teaching Law – an innovative approach’; Text Book ‘Business Law’ - Pearson Publications (2011) 3. Text book ‘Land Law – your Blueprint to learning’ – Pearson Publications (2014) 4. ‘The Immigration Act 2014; ‘Not on the list you’re not coming in; Landlords forced to discriminate’ – published in the Conveyancer and Property Lawyer (2015) 5. Consultation Paper ‘The Role of Equity in English Law’; written for the Kazakhstan Supreme Court [work-in-progress] 5 Summary of my intentions I start with my name as, through this doctoral commentary, I have come to re- contextualise my name and its association with my identity in my current role and its importance in influencing how I teach. It is Elliot Schatzberger. My surname translates as ‘man from Treasure Mountain’, but another translation, taken from Germanic Yiddish, which has even more resonance, is the ‘good or treasured shepherd’ I am a Senior Lecturer in Law and recently appointed Head of Learning and Teaching within the School of Law and Politics at Middlesex University. I have been given the opportunity to write this work to facilitate an exploration of what Bruns (1995) refers to as the nature of the hermeneutical experience in relation to my role as a legal educator. This doctorate is an opportunity to articulate what feeds into my own pedagogy and philosophy of education and what is transferable to others. Interrogating my works through the methodology and theoretical lenses of both Vygotsky’s Social Constructivist theories (Cole et al, 1979) and Critical Theory as propounded by Horkheimer, Adorno and others (Cowan, 2003), I will hope to address what is taught or can be taught and what comes from within, through personal experience. The objective, in line with the Schon’s ‘critical consciousness’ theories (1983), is to reflect on my formative years, my early career and my Public Works from 2003 in Malawi to 2016 in relation to my journal article, in order to demonstrate that, as illustrated by Bruns’ hermeneutic devices, the personal cannot and should not be divorced from the social, professional, universal and political (Bruns, 1995). I aim to demonstrate that it is exactly this manner of critical reflection that can bridge the personal and professional to illuminate my teaching and my role as a legal educator. What I hope will emerge is not only how to learn from reflection, but how to develop the curriculum and the pedagogy, the difference between being an inspiring and successful legal educator and taking responsibility for the development of teaching. I also aim to demonstrate that as McKinley (2015, p.184) suggests, “human [pedagogical] development is socially situated, and knowledge is constructed by interaction with others.” 6 The critical commentary is in two parts; firstly, a critical self-reflection looking back at what Philip Roth in his discussion with Primo Levi refers to as “…rootedness…” (1986, p.182) - an examination of my family history and early career path and how that has deeply influenced the values I hold, and which inform my professional practice and public works and, secondly, a critical analysis of the Public Works themselves. What has emerged that interconnects them: values and ethics; a strong drive towards acceptance of difference; making something out of what at first appears to be very little and helping people not just to survive but to reveal and develop their potential. 7 Methodology and the Theoretical Lens An approach to critiquing the public works I have chosen to interrogate my works through two separate theoretical lenses, both of which are apposite to my two main classifications of Public Works. In relation to my practitioner works in Malawi which has informed the formation of a new public work with the Supreme Court Justices in Kazakhstan, I have found critical theory to have some appeal, specifically the Frankfurt School and the work of Horkheimer and Adorno. In relation to my pedagogical works, I have rediscovered Lev Vygotsky and his particular take on social constructivism. Both theoretical frameworks lend themselves to the underpinning and reflective analysis of my Works. This doctoral commentary has allowed me the opportunity for what Schon refers to as “…reflection- in-action” (1983, p.278) and it is through the process of writing by way of critical reflection that I have selected these frameworks to explore my “…philosophy of [the] educative experience” (Dewey, 1938, p.28).