Amelia Landenberger writes….
Another teacher once told me to begin teaching legal research by asking students to find a pair of black dress shoes online.[1] Students can be very intimidated by the beginnings of legal research, particularly post-search filtering, but many of these same students are quite adept at post-search filtering while shopping online. After giving students a few minutes to perform their shoe-shopping research, the teacher can analogize their just-displayed skills to the skills they’ll need for legal research.
First, ask the room who was shopping for men’s dress shoes and who was shopping for women’s shoes. Likely many people will have pictured shoes which are marketed towards their own gender, but some students/audience members/participants may also have heard the word “dress” and assumed that the teacher wanted to find women’s shoes. This can be a good time to discuss how our own biases affect our research, and the importance of asking clarifying questions when being given a research task. Without enough detail a researcher can flounder, but asking a few questions upfront can avoid needless duplication of effort.
Second, ask about where the students began their search. Some will likely have typed into google “black dress shoes” but many may choose their sites first. Did they look for a site which they know has fast shipping? A site which they know sells shoes at the price point they would prefer? A site which meets ethical considerations in the shoe-making process? Our database choices shape the research we do.
Read full article
http://www.slaw.ca/2021/03/04/shoe-shopping-as-an-entry-point-to-teach-legal-research/
