Centring new students’ ‘non-traditional’ strengths: a challenge for legal education

This article has demonstrated how the community cultural wealth (CCW) of new law students can be centred and supported in law curricula. When we have presented the LPP2023 project to legal educators from other law schools, we have been asked whether we think it would be possible to replicate a subject like LPP2023 at another law school, where perhaps the cohort did not possess as much CCW. We acknowledge that the unique characteristics of the Western Sydney community and students afforded WSU Law School access to communities of varying religious and cultural backgrounds, ages and socio-economic status. However, we still think it would be possible to replicate this project at other, more ‘traditional’ institutions. For those ‘traditional’ students who may insist that they ‘do not have a culture’ to access for a community engagement project such as that in LPP2023, the concept of CCW may present a framework for discussions about the invisible pervasiveness of the dominant culture in higher education and encourage students to critically evaluate why legal education privileges some types of knowledge and skills over others. These discussions benefit all students, regardless of background.