Ms Kashmir Kaur (SFHEA)

Ms Kashmir Kaur (SFHEA)

Profile

I have taught English for Academic Purposes on a variety of courses to both postgraduate, undergraduate students and foreign language assistants at Leeds University since October 2008. I have spent time (7 weeks of Semester One 2016-2019) in China collaborating and teaching on the joint school project between the Leeds Engineering Faculty and South West Jiaotong University in Chengdu. I have led and developed a number of courses over the years e.g. Level 2 Academic English for Postgraduate Studies (AEPS), Academic Communication for AEPS and Language in Context Sustainability Module. Currently I’m the module lead for the Foreign Language Assistants’ English Language Course and Language for Engineering Summer Pre-Sessional and I’m collaborating with colleagues in the Faculty of the Environment (School of Earth and Environment and the Institute of Transport Studies) with In-sessional provision. I am also a member of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures’ Athena SWAN Self Assessment Team and the Faculty’s Decolonising Student Education Working Group. Plus, I have recently been the Staff Sustainability Architect for the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies and developed and taught on the AEPS PGR module.

My teaching experience also includes Academic English at Durham University, International Foundation Course at Leeds Metropolitan University and ESOL/EFL at Shipley & Leeds City colleges. Additionally, I have taught in Beirut for the British Council where I was involved in developing and delivering continuing professional development training to Palestinian and Lebanese teachers with respect to teaching content in the medium of English.

Prior to moving into the education sector, I spent several years working in the broadcasting industry. My time in television gave me extensive research, business and media experience and an in-depth knowledge of programme making particularly in the documentaries, features and factual entertainment departments.

Responsibilities

  • Module Lead Language for Engineering Summer Pre-sessional
  • Programme Director of Foreign Language Assistants' Language Course
  • English for Academic Purposes Lecturer

Research interests

My research interests in education are varied. They intersect student identity, engagement, internationalisation including aspects such as Critical EAP, ‘criticality’ in higher education, dialogic feedback, self-directed learning and ‘decolonising' student education. 

Publications

Conference and Symposium Talks   

  • Skipp, J. and Kaur, K. 2023. Shifting the focus from disciplinary EAP: the case for interdisciplinarity. BALEAP Conference: ‘Caution! EAP under Deconstruction’, 19-21 April, University of Warwick.
  • Kaur, K. and Fedorova, N. 2022, Constructing Communities Within and Beyond Borders. SoTL Conference: ’Building Communities through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning’, 15-17 June, Manchester Metropolitan University.
  • Kaur, K and Skipp, J. 2022 .Making Space to Foster Interdisciplinarity in EAP.  Norwegian Forum for English for Academic Purposes Conference: ‘Beginnings’, 9-10 June, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
  • Kaur, K. and Al Arefi, S. 2022. Navigating Interdisciplinarity through a Sustainability Lens. Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Conference: Mapping Interdisciplinarity: Finding our way, 7 April, University of Birmingham.
  • Kaur, K. and Al Arefi, S. 2022. Sustainability: Welcome into the fold. Advance HE’s Sustainability Symposium: ‘Front, Centre and Now: Sustainability as a Core Purpose of Higher Education’, 29–30 March, Virtual.
  • Kaur, K. and Alimalayeri, R. 2022. Building Bonds: Constructing Communities. Student Education Conference: ‘Belonging and Community’, 6–7 January. University of Leeds.
  • Kaur, K. 2021. Reflections of Critical EAP in the Mainstream Curriculum. Language Education for Social Justice Virtual Conference, 1–3 June, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
  • Kaur, K. 2020. Criticality? Critical Thinking? As you like it? Academic English Conference, 27–29 October, Cambridge University Press.
  • Kaur, K. 2020. Wrestling with Criticality in Teaching and Student Learning. EAP Conference: ‘Anybody out there: addressing audiences in academic discourse’, 29 February, St Andrews University.
  • Kaur, K. and Liu, J. 2020. Blended approaches to embedding criticality for student success. Student Education Conference: ‘Student Success’, 6–7 January, University of Leeds.
  • Kaur, K. 2019. Critical EAP in action: from experiment to mainstream. BALEAP Conference: ‘Innovation, Exploration and Transformation’, 12–14 April, University of Leeds.
  • Kaur, K. & Fedorova, N. 2019. Convened the Criticality Symposium Questioning Criticality: What is Criticality in Higher Education? 19 December, University of Leeds.
  • Kaur, K. 2019. Embedding ‘criticality’ as a blended approach in mainstream study to promote student success. Questioning Criticality: What is Criticality in Higher Education? Symposium,19 December, University of Leeds.
  • Kaur, K. 2018. Crossing Borders…Shifting Sands: Investigation of Chinese students’ study experiences in Leeds and in Chengdu. EAP and Internationalisation: Building links between institutions and learning cultures Symposium,1 November, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China.
  • Kaur, K. 2017. Crossing borders...shifting sands: An investigation of Chinese students' study experiences in Leeds and in Chengdu. Language Education Across Borders Conference, 8–10 December, University of Graz, Austria.
  • Kaur, K. 2017. Enhancing International Student Experience Through Audio Formative Feedback'. INFORM Conference:Innovative Ideas for Enhanced Student Engagement’, 15 July, University of Reading.
  • Kaur, K. and Leslie, A. 2013. Critical Engagement Through Global Citizenship. Student Education Conference, 6–7 January, University of Leeds.
  • Kaur, K. 2011. How do students’ writing skills compare when working alone and when working collaboratively?  English Language Connections Conference, 20–21 May, Leeds Metropolitan University. 
  • Kaur, K., Parkin, M., Poole, J. and Poulson, C. 2011. One Size Fits All. Poster Presentation BALEAP Professional Issues Meeting: ‘How Low Can We Go: Issues, Insights and Innovations’, 12 February, University of Bristol.

Workshops/Seminars

  • Kaur, K. 2022. Dialogic Feedback: What’s your take on feedback? Online Teaching in School of Languages Cultures and Societies – ‘Conversation, 19 January, University of Leeds.
  • Kaur, K. 2018. Enhancing student engagement through audio formative feedback. School of Languages, Cultures and Societies’ Digital Showcase, 7 November, University of Leeds.
  • Kaur, K. 2018. Effective Formative Feedback through Audio. English Language Teaching Centre, Teacher Development Training Day, 12 January, University of Sheffield.
  • Kaur, K. and Freeman, K. 2017. Criticality in EAP. Workshop. 14 December. Universidad Europea de Madrid, Spain.
  • Kaur, K. 2017. Enhancing International Student Experience Through Audio Formative Feedback. Workshop: Enhancing Learning and Teaching through Effective Feedback, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, 12 December, University of Leeds.
  • Kaur, K. and Brajkovic, I. 2017. Enhancing international students’ engagement through audio formative feedback and student collaboration. Pecha Kucha, Language Scholar Journal Launch, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies’ Scholarship Showcase, 16 May, University of Leeds.

Awards

  • May 2023 – Received the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures University of Leeds Partnership Award for Feedback and Assessment. ‘This category recognise commitment to students by a member of staff...who provide students with an excellent experience in assessment and feedback.’
  • April 2022 – Received the Cross-Institutional University of Leeds Partnership Award for Feedback and Assessment. ‘This category recognise commitment to students by a member of staff...who provide students with an excellent experience in assessment and feedback.’
  • May 2021 – Received the University of Leeds Partnership Award for Feedback. This award recognises “The person who provides invaluable and supportive academic feedback in both content and delivery method, which helps others to develop and excel in their work.”
  • April 2020 – Received the Mentoring award at the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures Partnership Awards. This recognises “The person’s guidance and support has encouraged and nurtured others to develop their skills and prospects for the future, helping them to grow and progress, either personally or in their learning.”
  • June 2019 – Was the ‘runner up’ in the ‘Building Knowledge and Capacity’ category at the University of Leeds Sustainability Awards. This was for the successful development and delivery of the ‘Language in Context – Sustainability Module’.
  • April 2018 - Received the Innovation award at the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures Partnership Awards. This recognises "The person or group who uses innovative methods and approaches to engage and excite others; such as through embracing new learning technology or through presenting challenging ideas in a way to spark discussion to further the understanding of a subject area."      
  • June 2017 - Shortlisted for the University of Leeds Sustainability Awards in the category of 'Building Knowledge and Capacity’. This was for introducing, developing and producing a bank of authentic audio/visual listening materials on the concept of sustainability, primarily to be utilised in the English module of the University of Leeds Engineering degrees at the South West Jiaotong University - Leeds Joint School in Chengdu.
  • May 2012 - Won a scholarship to attend David Nunan’s ‘Qualitative Research in Language Education’ Workshop at the University of Graz, Austria. 
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

  • MA Race & Resistance (History) (University of Leeds)
  • MA Linguistics & English Language Teaching (University of Leeds)
  • PGCE Post Compulsory Education & Training (University of Leeds)
  • Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy

Professional memberships

  • British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes (BALEAP)
  • International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL)
  • British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL)

Student education

Currently, I am the module lead for the Foreign Language Assistants’ English Language Course and for the Language for Engineering Summer Pre-Sessional Course. I’m also collaborating with colleagues in the Faculty of the Environment (School of Earth and Environment and the Institute of Transport Studies) with In-sessional provision.

Along side this, I am collaborating with colleagues from the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures with the Faculty’s Athena SWAN application and the Faculty’s work on decolonising student education. 

Research groups and institutes

  • Language Centre
  • PRIA