TEACHING PROFILE
Teaching experience & main duties
Dr. Kumar teaches a wide range of core Law modules such as Criminal Law, Legal Theory, Constitutional & Administrative Law, Public Law, Law of the European Union, Contract Law and Legal Systems & Methods and core Criminology modules such as Criminal Justice Process, Social Research Methods, and Research Skills. He also teaches optional Criminology modules such as Race, Ethnicity, Crime and Justice and Policing and Criminal Investigation. With over 700 hours of teaching UG and PG students of several Law and Criminology courses at three London universities in the UK, he possesses a considerable wealth of teaching experience.
He has taught students from various law and interdisciplinary programmes such as LLB, BA (Hons) in Criminology and Criminal Justice, Criminology and Law, Criminology and Psychology, BSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice, LLM QLD, and Graduate Diploma in Law. He is also familiar with designing and developing modules and preparing and marking assessments. He provides clear, constructive and comprehensive feedback to students on their formative and summative assessments within given deadlines.
He performs various administrative and leadership duties, ranging from participating in the assessment and teaching-related administration to regularly communicating and liaising with the module conveners, assistant school managers, UG and PG programme team leaders, disability liaisons, and his students, including those students with study support plans, to share information and learning & teaching experiences. He attends subject-area-related meetings, where the module’s content and methods of delivery are discussed with the module convenors.
He supports his senior colleagues in developing module content & assessment design and has advised the convenor of Constitutional & Administrative Law in widening the content on equality law in the UK in the context of developing an anti-caste legislative framework, and the convenor of Social Research Methods in designing student assignments. Peer review observations and discussions with more experienced Research & Teaching colleagues have provided opportunities to reflect on and improve his engagement with learners at all levels of study.
Teaching Pedagogy
nurturing creative thinkers
Creating an inclusive and accessible space lies at the heart of his teaching pedagogy, where students are free to question anything they believe is related to the subject area and where he employs effective communication with his students. His teaching draws on various perspectives- sociolegal, feminist theory, critical legal, critical race/ caste, and law-in-context. He is transparent with his students- and maintains openness in revealing the structure and content of the course, identification of key points to be retained from a given seminar, flagging important transitions in the content and learning throughout the semester, and situating the topic in its larger historical, doctrinal and empirical contexts. He adopts an approachable and accessible attitude towards students and offers them formal and informal advice on study skills, class preparations and assignments via email. He also responds to students’ queries related to the modules’ content and assignments and prepares them for the same. He uses a variety of learning methods, such as developing more inclusive teaching materials, methods, student-pairing and group presentations, and using appropriate technology such as Mentimeter, Whiteboard, and Breakout rooms to conduct his online seminars during the Covid-19 pandemic. He continues to use these technologies while delivering teaching in a hybrid model.
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