Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2012

Abstract

Educating Lawyers, the 2007 Carnegie Foundation study of legal education, challenges law schools to become more intentional about educating students for formation of professional identity. Noting that clergy education has focused more on the formative aspects of professional education than have other professional schools, the study suggests that legal educators could learn a great deal from clergy education about teaching for professional identity formation. Taking that suggestion to heart, the authors undertook an examination of clergy education, with a particular focus on the role of field education in students’ personal and professional formation. This article reports on that examination of clergy field education, finding that in clergy education the primary educational goal of field education is reflection toward professional and personal formation. After reviewing various approaches to field education in clergy education, the authors suggest how legal externship teachers may learn from clergy education in making formation of personal and professional identity a central goal of the law school externship course, and offer suggestions of specific pedagogical and curricular approaches that may be adapted to externships in legal education.

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