Just cause for recognition

From helping to stop illegal dumping outside charity bins, to collaborating with councils looking into illegal felling of mangroves, criminology and law students at UTS can expect to get their hands a little dirty under the supervision of Senior Lecturer Penny Crofts.

Through practical fieldwork and community-based assessment, Crofts is instilling a sense of morality and collective consciousness in her students.

“The community-based projects my students undertake are an innovative way to encourage them to think outside the square about how all aspects of the law combine,” says Crofts.

Her students agree.

“There is a wonderful alchemy that occurs when students gain experience as well as knowledge, says one student from Crofts’ 2013 class, “and that is what happens in Wickedness and Vice.”

The approach has earned Crofts a national Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Crofts was one of six UTS staff to receive a citation in the Australian Government’s 2014 Awards for University Teaching in September.

UTS received a total of four citations – two for joint nominees – across four faculties, the Institute for Interactive Media and Learning (IML) and community partnership program UTS Shopfront. All were in honour of professionally focused and ‘real-world’ approaches.

Crofts’ citation was in recognition of her achievements in “developing authentic, sustained and transformative experiences of ‘law in action’ that inspire students with a passion for justice and integrity”.

“The projects challenge pre-conceived ideas and stereotypes, opening up a world students are often sheltered from,” says one of Crofts’ Juris Doctor students. “They allowed us to question, evaluate and weigh up the strengths and weaknesses of our particular worldviews in light of new evidence and information – which is arguably the whole point of university.”

In applying for the citation, Crofts was surprised to find she exceeded the eligibility requirements for the ‘sustained practice’ criterion, which requires at least three years’ work in a particular field.

“I thought ‘Oh my god, I’ve been doing this for 19 years!’” she exclaims.

Nicola Parker and Katrina Waite. Photographer: Shane Lo

“Penny was probably overdue in her application for an award like this, given the amount of time she has spent researching, and teaching in the field,” says IML Lecturer Nicola Parker. “She had more than enough material to complete her application for a citation.”

As a faculty specialist for law, part of Parker’s role is to help applicants from the faculty to prepare their citation applications for submission.

“Applicants often find it difficult to write in the style required for the citation application,” says Lecturer Katrina Waite who works alongside Parker in IML and also assisted Crofts in completing her application for the national citation.

As with all UTS’s national citation recipients this year, Crofts was first successful in the annual UTS Learning and Teaching Awards last year.

“I worked closely with Nicola and Katrina from IML, who are both experts in the area,” says Crofts. “The support they gave me, and the amount of time they spent helping me prepare my application was phenomenal.”

Parker says, “People might not necessarily be ready to apply for the award, but Penny definitely was.”

At the time of her application, Crofts already had a lot of supporting evidence to choose from through student feedback surveys, peer reviews and student testimonials, which Parker and Waite were able to assist her in selecting.

“The application needs to be a strong narrative about the work the applicants have done, and the evidence needs to support the picture of what they’re actually claiming.

“Penny understood straight away the kind of evidence needed, and she had a drawer full!” Parker laughs.

Crofts was able to demonstrate that her students had published work on their community-based assessments in refereed journals; that she had written and contributed to textbooks that are used across Australia in legal education; and that her teaching and learning approaches had been cited nationally and internationally in research papers.

Crofts’ passion for social justice encompasses a deep interest in the concept of wickedness. “Society has a tendency to overuse the language and rhetoric of wickedness, without knowing what it really means,” she says.

Her PhD thesis, completed at Griffith University, was entitled Wickedness and Crime: Laws of Homicide and Malice. Published as a book in 2013, it addresses discourses of wickedness and crime in determining culpability and punishment.

Throughout the book, Crofts combines her expertise in the fields of legal theory and philosophy to challenge contemporary frameworks for ascribing blameworthiness. The book has since gone on to be used as teaching resource and reference material by fellow law researchers. It also garnered a review in TheCambridge Law Journal; an honour for Crofts who is a former master’s student of the university.

Crofts is now focusing her research interest on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse in Australia.

“I have a lot of projects, and this one is quite a heavy topic,” she says.

“Without giving away too much, I am also starting my research for a project based on law and horror, which is a fun and accessible way of analysing how law and horror films represent culpability and wickedness,” she says.

It is Crofts’ ability to bring this curiosity and passion for all aspects of the law to life for her students that earned her the national citation.

As Parker so aptly summarises, “She provides a transformative learning experience for her students, and you can’t ask for much more than that.”