Stonestreet, Jane and McArthur, Jan (2026) An assessment of the influences on Undergraduate Law Course Design : A Bernstein perspective. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.
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Abstract
This thesis investigates the influences evident in the design of the undergraduate law courses, and the impact of those influences from the perspective of the course designers. The investigation is taking place at a time of change in legal education, and this will enable an assessment of both the context in which legal course design falls and the potential for change in that design. The literature on course design, legal education and students’ learning is bought together to identify an appropriate conceptual mechanism in Bernstein’s pedagogic theory and framework. Interviews with course designers from a diverse group of twenty-two law schools were conducted and analysed to identify what external and internal forces there were on the disciplinary and non-disciplinary elements of design in degrees. Bernstein’s theory provided the framework to interrogate the way in which knowledge structures operated in this process. The thesis concludes that the spheres of influence and hierarchies are changing. The recontextualisation of knowledge in law at the point of course design remains a site of struggle and whilst the changes might present the designers and their teams with more autonomy and control, the shifts within the power and control structures create uncertainties that may prevent law schools from developing more integrated and holistic designs. The thesis applies Bernstein’s theory to legal education at a specific point in time and utilises it to interrogate the approaches that are being adopted at a point of uncertainty, suggesting that course design in law is deserving of more interrogation.