Improving client communication skills in migration law and practice education

Abstract

This article reports on a research-teaching collaboration in the Graduate Diploma in Migration Law and Practice. The collaboration aimed to improve students’ client communication skills by embedding interdisciplinary expertise to improve the learning materials and activities on offer in the program. After providing an overview of the collaboration, we share findings from the research, identifying key aspects of students’ skills development. The article concludes that incorporating interdisciplinary research expertise in migration law teaching can assist in creating valuable student experiences and developing professional communication skills.

Ensuring the competence of those tasked with providing immigration advice and assistance in Australia has long been a concern for policymakers. This has led to successive reviews, inquiries and reforms to registration requirements for people wishing to become registered migration agents (RMAs). ¹ Since 2018, the knowledge requirements to register as an RMA entail completing a Graduate Diploma in Migration Law and Practice (GDMLP) at one of the government-approved universities offering the course ² and successfully passing an Independent Capstone Assessment (ICA), administered by a body chosen by the Commonwealth government. The chosen ICA provider and exact format of the various assessment components have changed over time. However, at its core, the ICA includes both written and oral components, each of which must be passed, and is designed for graduates to ‘demonstrate they can provide professional advice on Australian migration matters in accordance with the occupational competency standards’. ³

The first GDMLP cohort to attempt the ICA in 2019 faced significant challenges, with very low success rates. In that intake, only 11 per cent of candidates passed, and the rates remained low in subsequent intakes, despite these figures including candidates who were making repeat attempts. ⁴ Below, we report on a teaching-research collaboration that we developed, to help improve GDMLP graduate skills and ICA outcomes, focusing specifically on client communication, a core skill for RMAs. After providing an overview of the project, we describe the suite of learning materials and activities we embedded within the GDMLP, to enhance client communication skills. We then share some of the outcomes emerging from these initiatives. Finally, we reflect on the implications for teaching, practice, and research.

The ‘communicating with clients’ project

To help respond to the challenges facing the first GDMLP graduates, in 2020, the GDMLP teaching team at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) joined forces with Laura Smith-Khan, who at that time was a UTS Chancellor’s Research Fellow conducting a study on communication in migration law practice. Christine Giles had been invited to design and deliver UTS’s new GDMLP and has continued to run the program. With the assistance of Christine and the GDMLP teaching team, Laura’s research into the GDMLP sought to examine how students intending to become RMAs develop their professional communication practices through their education. After obtaining Human Research Ethics clearance, ⁵ Laura carried out the research through a digital ethnography: ⁶ exploring the online learning platform; collecting key policy and teaching materials; conducting in-depth online interviews with nine GDMLP students at various points during and after their study journey; and participating in, observing and recording online practical workshops, including 42 client-consultation role-plays, over three different study periods in 2020–21.

However, Laura and Christine aimed to do more than just facilitate Laura’s research project. Together we designed an innovative collaboration, in which we sought to embed research-based knowledge, to enhance the GDMLP program and further develop graduate capabilities. Of particular focus, and in line with Laura’s law-and-language research expertise and interest, ⁷ was enhancing students’ client communication skills. These skills are crucial to meeting RMAs’ occupational competency standards ⁸ and of particularly high importance, given that many GDMLP students have English as a second or additional language ⁹ and migrant clients are also a linguistically diverse group. Laura’s emerging findings continue to inform ongoing GDMLP program improvements.

Developing client communication skills

The first goal of UTS’s GDMLP, delivered online, was to provide an engaging learning experience. Christine’s teaching philosophy centres around developing subjects and courses that break down law’s complexities, through practice-based, research-inspired and student-centred learning. Most GDMLP students have no background in law, so Christine designed the course’s introductory subject (Introduction to Migration Law: 78300) to meet their specific learning needs. For example, it introduces the IRAC (‘Issues, Rules, Application, Conclusion’) method of solving legal problems through hypothetical scenarios. The program as a whole offers many interactive and practical activities, as well as opportunities to gain work experience. While Christine and the teaching team witnessed impressive numbers of students successfully participating and completing the GDMLP from the very first cohorts, the low pass rates in the ICA meant they were very concerned to continue to refine their offerings, to ensure graduates were better prepared to successfully undertake this external assessment.

When Laura approached Christine in early 2020, with the view of extending her research to include the GDMLP, Christine saw an opportunity to enrich the student learning experience, by adding to and refining the activities and learning materials related to client communication. Dubbed the ‘Communicating with Clients’ project, this collaboration has resulted in the creation of new (and improvement of existing) targeted materials and activities, to assist students in developing skills in interviewing clients, taking instructions and providing oral advice. Laura and Christine progressively developed and continuously refined this suite of materials and activities, to improve students’ specialist communication skills, with Christine and the teaching team continuing to make improvements since the end of the project. So far, these have included six specific components, all aiming to build students’ ability to successfully conduct consultations with clients, as set out in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

‘Communicating with Clients’ learning resources and activities.

Students are guided through each aspect of client consultations, covering everything from rapport-building, through checking understanding, to managing expectations about visa outcomes. They are supported to develop consultation checklists and scripts to use with clients, working from exemplars and advice to customise their own scripts. Christine has designed and produced a set of exemplar consultation videos, demonstrating how to conduct each of these aspects in practice. These have been developed and refined by Christine and her teacher-practitioner colleagues over a number of years and serve to model best practice. The teaching team acts out the same hypothetical scenarios provided to students for their client consultation role-plays, where the students have the opportunity to put their checklists and emerging knowledge into practice.

From the beginning of the collaboration, Laura’s research expertise was integrated throughout. This was achieved both through her delivering a series of targeted research-informed presentations, drawing on her own research ¹⁰ and the broader scholarship on investigative interviewing, ¹¹ and through her ongoing consultation with Christine and the teaching team, in the development and refining of the other learning materials and activities described here. For example, during the collaboration Christine developed a set of interactive multimedia quizzes, known as H5Ps, ¹² which take students step-by-step through the client consultation process. For each one, she consulted with Laura regarding their design and content. In these activities, students are asked a series of multiple-choice questions related to conducting consultations. After choosing each of their responses, they are given targeted feedback in multiple forms, including written advice, excerpts from the video exemplars and excerpts from Laura’s recorded presentations.

Across this suite of materials, we have developed targeted advice and examples relevant to each different part of the course. These include, for example, advice on working and communicating with vulnerable clients, especially those who may have had traumatic experiences; advice about conducting consultations where gender-based or other concerns around power dynamics are salient; and communicating with the assistance of an interpreter.

In practical workshops held during each session of study, students practise conducting client consultations through role-plays with their peers. They then receive feedback and have the chance to review the video exemplar consultations. The role-plays involve each student being assigned to play an RMA, with another student (or sometimes a teacher) taking on the role of the client. Teachers give a presentation on the relevant communication skills and approaches for the particular type of consultation the cohort will conduct and also brief the students on the relevant area of migration law. The pairs are each given part of a fact scenario relevant to their current subject, to guide the consultation. They are then divided into small groups and assigned to different Zoom breakout rooms for this activity, each pair taking turns, as well as observing other pairs in the room. Those who participated in Laura’s study in each session were all assigned to one group and breakout room. Complementing other guidance available in relation to skills and content, Laura also conducted debriefings with them on their communication verbally and/or by email. Those who also participated in the qualitative research interviews could further debrief with Laura about their workshop experience then. ¹³

Project outcomes

Overall, the collaboration has been successful, receiving recognition through UTS Faculty, University and external awards. ¹⁴ Most important, however, are the outcomes that students and graduates identified and experienced, as shared with both Laura and the teaching team. Data from Laura’s project provide insights into students’ experiences, perspectives, and observed and reported benefits from this component of the GDMLP. Students explained that having access to the full suite of learning materials and activities was beneficial, with the materials provided on the online learning platform complementing the live practical activities, feedback, and peer-modelling. In terms of identified outcomes, they experienced increases in both their competence, as well as their confidence in the specialised communication skills they needed to graduate, pass their external ICA, and transition into working as RMAs. Below, we explore the specific ways these improvements occurred.

Using learning materials to avoid and overcome misunderstandings

Collecting full and accurate relevant information about one’s clients is fundamental to successful legal practice. Transcript analysis of the role-plays recorded for the research demonstrated the positive impact of the preparatory learning materials, particularly in providing concrete strategies for students to gather accurate information from clients. Laura’s presentations referred to this explicitly, as did the consultation checklist examples, each advising students to include a stage in the consultation where the RMA checks important client information, to make sure they have understood correctly, and probes to clarify any missing or unclear details. The video exemplars also modelled examples of how this may be done in practice.

These appear to have assisted students to successfully avoid and overcome misunderstandings: out of the 42 role-plays, the analysis identified only one in which a serious misunderstanding arose and remained unresolved, leading to crucial client information being misunderstood and misinterpreted. Crucially, in that one exceptional case, the RMA had failed to follow the guidance around clarifying the accuracy of important client information, skipping this step. This suggests that the learning materials, when followed, supported the development of this crucial professional communication skill. Closer analysis of how students apply this teaching advice has also provided additional opportunities to refine existing resources. ¹⁵

Building confidence through practice

Increased confidence was a particularly common theme in the research. For example, early in her study, one student described herself as particularly nervous and self-conscious when speaking in front of others, especially in English, which is not her first language. In fact, it took several emails with Laura before she decided to participate in the study at all. During her first online workshop, while all the other students in the breakout room had their videos on, she did not use a webcam for her role-plays:

Because I think, if I don’t see anyone’s there, I pretend I’m just talking in the dark to myself. So you can see how nervous I was compared [with the most recent workshop].

             Student A, Interview 2, 2022

She explained how, over time, successive client-consultation workshops helped her to gradually gain confidence in her oral communication skills: ‘after more and more practice, probably in my brain I think, oh it’s not a big deal. Don’t take it like you’re going to deliver a national speech’ (Student A, Interview 2, 2022). Her increased confidence was also evidenced in her altered approach to the role-plays in later workshops: she had her camera switched on and she even volunteered to participate in additional role-plays, to assist other students.

Having recently successfully undertaken her Capstone oral exam, this participant specifically attributed her success in passing on her first attempt to the client communication learning materials and activities, which she used in her exam preparation. She also reported that these positive learning and examination experiences helped her gain so much confidence that she is now pursuing work opportunities with an NGO assisting refugees, despite previously believing that such challenging work would be too demanding for her.

While beyond the scope of this short summary, building confidence through ongoing practice was a key theme, especially among those who did not have English as a first language; this is explored in greater detail in the study’s other publications. ¹⁶

Critical self-reflection

Another student described how he became more adept with each workshop, learning from what worked well and what he could improve, through the experience of doing. For example, after the first workshop he attended and then debriefing about the experience, he talked about how, before undertaking a role-play for the first time, he had been overconfident. Although he had prepared a client consultation checklist, he did not have it displayed, to easily refer to during his role-play. He identified improving his desk setup and referring to the checklist as a key area for improvement.

In the following session’s workshop, some months later, he felt ‘much better’ about his performance in the role-play and noted that, learning from his first experience, he had adapted his computer setup, to be able to refer more easily to his consultation checklist. However, when debriefing again with Laura after this second session, he still critically evaluated his approach and identified concrete ways to further refine his performance in the future:

I should’ve really practised a bit just to have a mental idea of how things go… Next time, yes, I’ll go through the additional materials, and I’ll practise, I’ll do a mock one with my wife. Then I can face any difficult client.

             Student B, Interview 2, 2020.

Such reflections demonstrate an additional potential pedagogical benefit: critically reflecting on their learning experiences in this context can help students to more generally refine their approaches to learning. ¹⁷

Students also engaged in critical self-reflection within the role-play debriefing. For example, after completing a role-play, playing the RMA, student C reflected on how her emotional state affected her participation. In this particular case, the student playing the client also provided validating and encouraging feedback that helped to reassure her.

Student C: I missed a lot of information.

Laura: What did you miss? Let’s debrief now, so you can already think about things. What would you do differently next time?

Student C: I wasn’t relaxed. I memorised some…

Client student: It’s tough to relax.

Laura: It’s very challenging, yes.

Student C: Yes. I talk too fast. At the very beginning, I didn’t give chance to client to settle down very well.

Client student: I was comfortable.

Student C: You were okay? Okay, that’s cool.

          Role-play debrief, Workshop 1, 2020

It was positive to witness Student C in a subsequent workshop leading the role-play with more confidence and ease.

Peer feedback and modelling

In the above example and others, we also observed a positive aspect of group learning: students playing the clients in the role-plays also often offered feedback to their peers during debriefing. While this feedback was always delivered with kindness and encouragement, at times it also added constructive criticism directly from the ‘client’s’ perspective.

Laura: How did you feel as the client, [Student D]?

Student D: Oh, I agree with what you said, um, I felt there was a lot of information thrown at me, not a lot of chance for me to speak. But, you know, overall, I felt that, I did take away that I knew what I had to do. So, I thought that was good.

         Role-play debrief, Workshop 3, 2021.

Another beneficial aspect of participating in client consultation role-plays in groups became evident to Laura during her observations: that students learned both by watching what other students did when they played the RMA and the feedback that they heard others receive. They were able to adapt their own approach to either follow or diverge from their peers, according to what they felt was best. Laura remarked on this explicitly at various points during debriefings and research journalling.

Student B made a similar observation, recounting how he benefited from having the chance to watch two other students role-playing an RMA, before he had his turn:

I got the experience this time, because when I role-played as a client, I had an opportunity to do that, you know, as a client and as a student as well, so I could listen to their interviewing skills. ¹⁸

             Student B, Interview 1, 2020

Practice and knowledge-based learning

Student E emphasised what he perceived as the interactive and hands-on approach in the UTS GDMLP, comparing it with what he had heard about other programs of study:

They don’t have as many discussions [as we have] … it’s more, okay, assessment and studies, assessments and study, less discussion

             Student E, Interview 1, 2020

Later, he again underlined the value of repeated opportunities to undertake role-play activities, in combination with other forms of learning, echoing what many participants reported: ‘the more we do, the more we are used to it. It’s just a matter of time and you just have to study, learn and practise’ (Student E, Role-play debrief, Workshop 2, 2020). Repeated participation in the role-plays was seen as crucial to developing both competence and confidence. This both reinforced and was reinforced by other materials and knowledge shared within the program.

Reflections and implications

Both existing scholarship and professional stakeholders have noted a dearth of opportunities for developing practical skills in traditional migration and refugee law education. ¹⁹ This has led teachers and researchers to advocate for the introduction of a more hands-on learning experience, including through role-plays and simulations, to help bridge the ‘the knowing-doing gap’. ²⁰ The client communication offerings in UTS’s GDMLP help to address this concern. Embedding interdisciplinary evidence-based learning, drawing on both the teaching team’s technical legal knowledge and migration practice experience and Laura’s language-focused research expertise, offered students the opportunity to refine their skills before entering the profession.

Further, the project contributes to growing scholarly emphasis in both migration research and higher education research around ensuring more ethical approaches to data collection and research dissemination. ²¹ Rather than simply collecting data, the project sought to engage closely with research partners and participants from the very beginning of research design, through active data collection and participation within the research space, to the continuous sharing of research expertise and findings from very early on.

Prolonged engagement with teachers and students and the co-design of both the research and learning materials have created many meaningful opportunities for research engagement and impact from the very inception of the collaboration until now. Therefore, the project also provides an example of ‘engaged research’, a ‘methodology that cares strongly about collaboration with the researched community … and which conceptualizes research as a study “on, for and with” the participants’, ²² contributing a novel example for scholars interested in adopting this approach.

Of course, collecting research through direct interaction with participants who are identifiable to the researcher has an impact on the type of information that participants are likely to share. Likewise, researchers, as social participants, inevitably shape the interpretation of research data gathered through this type of ethnographic study, due to their own subjectivities. Therefore, further triangulation could be prioritised in and through future research, for example, the involvement of additional researchers and/or the inclusion of statistical or other forms of quantitative data and analysis. ²³

Nonetheless, the rich qualitative data collected in this project, including research observations, journalling, transcript analysis, participant debriefings and interviews, identified important ways in which students develop both their competence and self-confidence in communicating with clients. As examined above, these include applying practical advice, repeatedly engaging in practical activities, critical self-reflection, referring to learning materials, customising their own scripts and checklists, and through peer-assisted learning. These findings not only offer support for calls to increase practical training within migration law education; they also provide tangible examples of how this can be implemented in practice, with the end goal of improving educational experiences and professional communication skills for diverse student cohorts, as well as having a positive impact on migrant client experiences.