Dr Stephen Parker

Head of Postgraduate Studies and Research Student Coordinator

Institute of Education

Contact Details

email: s.parker@worc.ac.uk

tel: 01905 542165

After a successful teaching career, Stephen moved into Higher Education, joining the Institute of Education at Worcester in 2008. Since publishing his PhD thesis as Faith on the Home Front in 2005, Stephen has developed particular expertise in religious education, especially aspects of its history across the twentieth century. Retaining interests in broader religious and ecclesiastical history, Stephen’s research sits at the interface between religion, education and society. In his on-going work, he is a leading contributor to developing perspectives on the religious history of education.

 

Stephen’s current research focuses upon the history of religious education in the1960s and 1970s; RE teachers’ professional and religious identity; religious education on radio and television; and the history of childhood and Sunday schooling. Stephen’s work at the University of Worcester utilises this research in various ways: directly, through teaching across courses on issues in religion and education, but also in developing critical perspectives upon policies and practices in the performance of education.

 

Since 2008 Stephen has been engaged in a number of funded research projects investigating:

 

• The Hidden History of Curriculum Change in Religious Education in English schools, 1969-1979 (funded by the British Academy)
• The Hidden History of Religious Education: The Life-Histories of R.E. Professionals in the Midlands from the long 1960s to the 1980s (funded by the Westhill Trust).
• The impact of A-level Religious Studies on the values and outlook of 16-19 year olds (funded by the St. Gabriel’s and the St Peter’s Saltley Trusts)

 

In June 2013, Stephen will be leading a seminar, sponsored by the Culham St. Gabriel’s Trust and the St. Peter’s Saltley Trust, on the future of Religious Education. This will be a research-informed event with invited keynote speaker who will address national and international perspectives on issues in religious education with a view to mapping a future for the subject in schools.

 

Stephen has recently authored and co-edited two volumes:

 

God and War and Religious Education and Freedom of Religion and Belief

 

Since 2009, Stephen has been an Associate Fellow of the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit working collaboratively with Professor Leslie Francis, the Director of the Unit.

 

Academic Qualifications:

 

PhD (Theology) (Birmingham)
PGCert (Teaching and Learning in Higher Education) (Liverpool)
MA (Birmingham)
B.Ed (Hons) Religious and Theological Studies and Education (Birmingham)

 
Stephen's blog can be found at http://religiohistored.wordpress.com/

Teaching & Supervision

For the academic year, 2012/13 Stephen is scheduled to teach:

PITE Religious Education
EDST2022 Religion and Morality in Contemporary Education
EDST3016 Values in Education
MEDD4070 Current Issues in Religious Education
MEDD4071 Learning and Teaching Religious Education
MEDD4001 Research Methods

Dr Parker will also be supervising undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation studies.

Dr Parker is currently supervising the following MPhil/PhD students:

Marie Stephenson – Ethical leadership in the not-for-profit sector

Elizabeth Newton – A teachers’ history of Religious Education

Branwen Bingle – Children’s literature and the idea of the teacher

Jody Crutchley – The British empire and education

Kay Bushnell – A history of grammar teaching

Dr Parker would be pleased to receive enquiries about supervision on any aspect of religious education; religion, education and society; and the application of historical methodologies to contemporary issues in education and religion.

Dr Parker is lead on the professional doctorate in education (EdD) recruiting to begin in 2013. He is Course Leader for the new MA Education also beginning in 2013.

Professional Bodies

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS)

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Member of the International Seminar on Religious Education and Values

Member of Association of University Lecturers in Religious Education

Member of the History of Education Society, UK

Member of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain

Member of Ecclesiastical History Society

Member of the Church of England Record Society.

Publications

Books:

Parker, S.G., Lawson, T. (2012) God and War: the Church of England and Armed Conflict in the Twentieth-century. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Parker, S.G., Freathy R.J.K., Francis, L.J. (2012). Religious Education and Freedom of Religion and Belief. Bern: Peter Lang.

Campbell, W.S., Parker, S.G. (2011). Faith in Education. Journal of Beliefs and Values , 32: 2.

Parker, S.G. (2006). Faith on the Home Front: Aspects of Church Life and Popular Religion in Birmingham, 1939 – 1945. Bern: Peter Lang.

Book Chapters:

Parker, S.G., Freathy, R.J.K., Doney, J. (in press) The English Movement for Christian Education and its Journals, c.1920 to 1970. In Schroeder, B (ed) (in press) Institutionalization and profile of RE: selected European case studies. Germany: Mohr Siebeck.

Freathy, R.J.K., Parker, S.G. (2012) Freedom from Religious Beliefs: Humanists and Religious Education in England in the 1960s and 70s. In Parker, S.G. and Freathy R.J.K. (eds) Religious Education and Freedom of Religion and Belief. Bern: Peter Lang.

Parker, S., Freathy, R., Francis, L.J. (2012). Introduction in Parker S, Freathy R.,Francis L.J. (eds.) Religious Education and Freedom of Religion and Belief, Oxford: Peter Lang, 1-3.

Lawson, T., Parker, S.G. (2012) God and War: a century in the politics of religion. In Parker, S.G. and Lawson, T. (eds). God and War: the Church of England and Armed Conflict in the Twentieth-century. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Parker, S.G. (2012) Reinvigorating Christian Britain: the spiritual opportunities of the war, national identity, and the hope of Religious Education. In Parker, S.G. and Lawson, T. (eds) God and War: the Church of England and Armed Conflict in the Twentieth-century. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Snape, M. F., Parker, S.G. (2001) Keeping Faith and Coping: belief, popular religiosity and the British people. In Liddle, P., Bourne, J. and Whitehead, I. (eds.) (2001) The Great World War (Volume 2): the people’s experience. London: Harper Collins.

Journal articles:

Freathy, R.J.K., Parker, S.G. (2013) ‘Secularists, Humanists and religious education: religious crisis and curriculum change, 1963-1975’, History of Education: journal of the History of Education Society, 42: 2, 222—256. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0046760X.2012.761733

Parker, S.G., Freathy, R.J.K. (2012) ‘Ethnic diversity, Christian hegemony and the emergence of multi-faith religious education in the 1970s’, History of Education: journal of the History of Education Society, 41: 3, 381–404. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0046760X.2011.620013

Parker, S.G., Freathy, R.J.K. (2011) ‘Context, Complexity and Contestation: Birmingham’s Agreed Syllabuses since the 1960s’, Journal of Beliefs and Values, 32: 2, 247 – 263. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2011.600823

Freathy, R.J.K., Parker, S.G. (2010) ‘The necessity of historical inquiry in educational research: the case of religious education’, British Journal of Religious Education, 32: 3, 229 – 243. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2010.498612

Parker, S. G. (2010) ‘'Teach them to pray Auntie’: Children's Hour Prayers at the BBC, 1940-1961'’, History of Education: journal of the History of Education Society, Vol. 39: 5, 659-676. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00467601003685741

Parker, S.G. (2009b) ‘Theorizing sacred space in educational contexts: a case study of three English Midlands Sixth Form Colleges’, Journal of Beliefs and Values, 30:1, 29-39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13617670902784527

Parker, S.G. (2009a) ‘‘Blessed are the pacifists’: E.W. Barnes of Birmingham and Pacifism, 1914-1945’, Midland History, Vol. 34: 2, 204–219. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/175638109X417369

Recently Published Book Reviews:

Green, S.J.D (2011). The Passing of Protestant England: secularisation and social change, c. 1920-1960. Cambridge: CUP in the Journal of British Studies, vol. 51, 3, 2012, pp.769-770.

King, Ursula (2009) The Search for Spirituality: our global quest for meaning and fulfilment, Norwich: Canterbury Press at: http://www.shapworkingparty.org.uk/reviews.html published February, 2010.

Shapiro, Joan Poliner and Gross, Steven Jay (2007) Ethical Educational Leadership in Turbulent Times (Re-solving Moral Dilemmas). London: Routledge at: http://escalate.ac.uk/5018 published April 2010.

Other articles:
Stephen Parker, ‘Wakefield, Henry Russell (1854-1933)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press

Stephen Parker, ‘Woods, Edward Sydney (1877-1953)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press

Life After Death and Personhood, Dialogue: A Journal of Religion and Philosophy, Issue 29: November 2007

Reports:

First Thoughts on Spirituality in the Sixth Form College, Farmington Fellowship Report, 2008. See: http://www.farmington.ac.uk/documents/reports/framed/phil_spir.html

Most Recent Conference Papers:

J.G. Williams, School Worship and the Idea of Childhood Piety at the BBC, Institute for Historical Research, June 2013.

History of Education Society: rulers, rebels and reformers, The Aussie and the Schoolmistress: reforming RE and contesting English religious identity in the long 1960s, November 2012.

International Seminar on Religious Education and Values, The Christian Education Movement, 1964-1980 and Religious Education and the Mary Whitehouse Experience, Turku Finland, July 2012.

What can RE learn from broadcasting history? Paper given at the annual symposium on Practical Theology and Religious Education at St. Mary’s Centre, Noddfa, November 2011

‘Love Thy Neighbour’?: religious education and the politics of diversity, Education and Social Research, University of Worcester Research Conference, May 2011.

History of Education Society Conference: Religion, Citizenship and Education, ‘Love Thy Neighbour’? Race, Religious Education and the Politics of Diversity, 1969-75: an historical case study and Problems & Prospects for Religious Education in England, 1967-1970: A Short Act? November 2010.

International Seminar on Religious Education and Values, Freedom from religious beliefs: A case-study from the history of English Religious Education, Ottawa, July 2010

External Responsibilities

 

Stephen is Assistant Editor and Reviews Editor of the Journal of Beliefs and Values and a member of the Executive Committee of the History of Education Society.

He is also:
Member of the Editorial Board of Practical Theology
Lead Series Editor: Religion, Education and Values, Peter Lang AG.
External Examiner, for the MA Education at the University of Sunderland
Associate Lecturer for the MA Religious Studies, the Open University