Taking legal education out of the “closet”: impressions of law students about sexual and gender diversity in the academic curriculum

Abstract

The scarce literature on legal education and sexual and gender diversity indicates that universities follow a traditional and technical pattern, without dialogue on social issues necessary for legal professionals. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate whether future professionals feel prepared to deal with issues related to sexual and gender diversity and what relationships they establish between university degrees and degrees of preparation/competence. For this purpose, an empirical research was carried out with the application of 200 questionnaires, with undergraduate law students from a private university in Recife. The data collected were tabulated and analyzed using a quantitative approach, demonstrating, mainly, that despite a significant portion (40%) of the researchers feel prepared to work with demands on gender and sexuality diversity in their professional practice, only a few of this preparation is attributed to the university, that is, 76.5% points to a university that does not offer (13.5%) or offers little (63%) training in sexual and gender diversity. With that, then, it can be said that Brazilian legal thought carries the roots of the positivist model and, therefore, is often limited to what is laid down in laws and codes. It is necessary to rethink the current legal education model, its resources and the observed teaching performance and, therefore, potentialize law as a science that plays an important role in combating discrimination, prejudice, producing of instruments that effectively guarantee vulnerable population.