Term

Summer 2026

Capstone

Dissertation

Degree Name

EdD

Primary Advisor/Dissertation Chair

Trish Harvey

Abstract

This mixed methods study sought to understand how the hidden curriculum affects first-generation, marginalized, and underrepresented law students and attorneys, what educational and career opportunities they have missed as a result of not knowing these unwritten rules, and what law schools could do to better prepare this population for the realities of legal education and practice. Data were collected through an anonymous online survey and a focus group with first-generation law students and attorneys who have been in the profession for ten years or less. Analysis of the data was mapped against the Conceptual Framework of the Hidden Curriculum in Law School (adapted from Rossouw and Frick, 2023) to include specific dimensions of the law school experience: white supremacy, law faculty, legal curriculum, legal field, student experience, lawyering skills, social capital, and the hidden curriculum itself. Five major learnings emerged from the data: the psychological toll of legal education’s hidden curriculum, critical knowledge gaps about academic credentials and career pathways, social capital shortfalls in professional identity formation, performative diversity and a lack of institutional action, and the unsupportive law school environment. Recommendations include making the hidden curriculum explicit through intentional programming, facilitating career pathways and professional identity development, strengthening faculty and staff diversity and retention, transforming and modernizing the legal curriculum and pedagogy, and cultivating an equitable law school environment. This study amplifies the voices of those most affected by the hidden curriculum and calls on legal education to do the difficult, necessary work of becoming a field that truly serves everyone who enters it.

Research Methodology

Focus Group, Survey (attitude scale, opinion, questionnaire)

Keywords

Hidden Curriculum, Legal Education, First-Generation Law Students, Professional Identity Development

dc_type

text

dc_publisher

DigitalCommons@Hamline

dc_format

application/pdf

dc_source

School of Education Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

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