Undergraduate Course: Social Justice in Context (Developing employability through multidisciplinary partnership-working) (LAWS09001)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 9 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Overview:
This 20 credit, level 9, multi-disciplinary course will recruit students from professional degree subjects including Law, Social Work, Forensic Medicine, Architecture, Education and Psychology. It will offer students the opportunity to create solutions to real-life problems in society by working together across disciplines. The course emphasises open group discussion, as well as self-reflection.
The course will be team-taught and will be delivered across two semesters. Students will have seminars every second week, with Autonomous Learning Group (ALG) meetings on ¿off¿ weeks. It will have a quota of 50 students, with absolutely no more than 15 from any one discipline.
Core aims:
- To develop in students from different professional disciplines the skill-set required to work effectively together
- To foster in students employability skills, such as effective communication; assertiveness; teamwork; public engagement; and negotiation
- To develop students¿ research and presentation skills, and to develop their understanding of research ethics
- To engage students in question of social justice, and to empower them to design solutions to core issues in contemporary public policy
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| Course description |
Indicative Teaching Programme
Seminar 1: Introduction: Research Skills, Research Ethics & Developing an Annotated Bibliography
Seminar 2: Preliminary Presentations on the Research "Problem"
Seminar 3: Examining the Problem from within Your Discipline
Half day session 1: Dialogue Course Part I
Half day session 2 : Dialogue Course Part II
Seminar 4: Engaging in dialogue about the Problem between disciplines
Half day session 3: Assertiveness and Negotiation Course
Seminar 5: Developing the Research Project: Taking the Problem Forward
Seminar 6: Ethics: Doing Research With Vulnerable Groups
Seminar 7: Communication and Public Engagement Skills
Seminar 8: Interviewing in Practice
Half day session 4: Assertiveness and Negotiation Revisited
Seminar 9: Presenting to different audiences
Seminar 10: Thinking about Design: Constructing Blueprints
Seminar 11: Solving the "Problem" - Final Reports and Feedback
Throughout the year, these contact sessions will be supplemented by Autonomous Learning Groups through which students will develop and explore themes and issues identified in these sessions in more detail.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Knowledge and Sources of Law:
By the end of the course, students should:
- Be able to apply subject-specific knowledge to a real-world social problem (e.g. in year one, the course will be focussed upon providing solutions to the problems of the high level of women¿s imprisonment in Scotland)
- Have an awareness of the relationship between academic research and policy development
- Understand the interactions between Law and other professional disciplines in order to develop effective solutions to social and legal problems
- Have an ability to critically analyse and assess the concept of ¿justice¿ and critically engage in different approaches to realising this in practice - Subject-specific Skills:
By the end of the course, students should:
- Have an enhanced ability to undertake independent research
- Be able to synthesise material from a variety of sources (for example, research reports, statistical bulletins, academic articles and books)
- Be able to engage with and synthesise material from their own discipline with that of other disciplines and professions
- Be able to identify issues and problems in need of further research and the means for investigating them
- Be able to work effectively with others in order to negotiate a solution to a specific social problem as part of a multidisciplinary team - General Transferable Intellectual Skills:
By the end of the course, students should:
- Be able to identify, collect, organise and evaluate evidence from a variety of different sources
- Be able to engage in critical and reflexive thought
- Be able to present evidence in a balanced way, by analysing the weak and strong points of argument and evidence, and to synthesise these in the process of solving problems and proposing effective solutions
- Be able to demonstrate creativity and coherent, evidenced argument through the development of proposed solutions to social problems
- Be able to communicate effectively to a variety of different audiences and through a variety of both oral and written communications
- Be able to undertake independent, self-directed research - Key Personal Skills:
By the end of the course, students should:
- Be able to engage in effective communication and negotiation as part of a multidisciplinary team
- Be able to work effectively as part of a team
- Have developed both written and oral presentation and communication skills
- Be able to communicate effectively in a variety of different settings, to a variety of different audiences, using a variety of different modes of communication
- Be able to critically reflect on their own contribution and learning as well as that of others
- Be able to identify areas of improvement and development in both their own work and that of others
- Have developed time management skills through the meeting of deadlines throughout the course - Subject-specific Legal and Ethical Values:
By the end of the course, students should:
- Have an awareness of the relationship between academic disciplines and their relevance to, and impact upon, the wider community
- Have an awareness of some of the needs and issues facing socially marginalized groups of people
- Be able to recognise, and respect, the contributions of different disciplines and professions for understanding and addressing contemporary social problems effectively
- Have an understanding of the ethical issues involved in undertaking research, particularly vulnerable social groups and the steps that can/should be taken to address potential ethical issues which may arise in the course of such research
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Reading List
Angiolini, E. (2012) Commission on Women Offenders: Final Report, Edinburgh: The Scottish Government (Available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Review/commissiononwomenoffenders/finalreport-2012) (Last visited: 31/05/2013)
As the focus of this course is to encourage independent research and reading on the part of the students, prescribed readings will be kept to a minimum. Instead, students will be encouraged to conduct their own literature searches and given guidance on how to do this effectively. As such, any additional materials will be minimal and, where suggested, will typically be available online. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Lynne Copson
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Nicole Porter
Tel: (0131 6)50 2309
Email: |
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