Inviting Visions: Role Plays About Community Economic Development

Abstract

Role play simulation can be a valuable technique to employ, whether teaching lawyering skills or substantive legal doctrine, or guiding community service. Role plays immerse participants in a particular context in which they can plan, perform and see reactions, elicit feedback and self critique. This chapter discusses the design and construction of role plays, also called simulations, to use in a variety of settings as a teaching and learning technique. It also touches briefly on debriefing student performances in role plays. Though there are references to 'teachers' and 'students' in this chapter, the technique is also useful as a planning device with a community group and other collaborators. Community economic development is a relatively novel context for role play in law schools, where the traditional focus on litigation has made moot court prevalent. The need for interdisciplinary collaboration is particularly clear in economic development work. Role play involving planning with community groups and their technical advisers can be very useful. It can help students cultivate good communication and planning practices. This article invites law teachers, students and communities to create role plays to strengthen skills and imagination to achieve community economic development. As a teacher new to Bangladesh and who has taught in the USA, I urge collaboration among law teachers to undertake this visionary work.