About
Research
Biography
Stephen Parker, Director of CERRL and Professor of Education and Religious History, joined St. Mary’s in May 2023 from the University of Worcester, where he held a personal chair in Religion and Education. Prior to this, he taught across sectors of education, from Primary to Sixth Form, as well as being a diocesan RE Adviser and lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies.
A historian specialising in education and religion during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Prof. Parker investigates the intricate relationships between churches and the evolving religious landscape of Britain and Ireland. His research focuses on the influence of religion on education across various contexts, including schools and religious broadcasting. His notable project, 'Faith on the Air' funded by a prestigious Leverhulme Trust Research Project grant, examines the role of public service broadcasting in shaping public perceptions of religion over generations. The culmination of this research, a book titled Religious Education: A Broadcasting History, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
As Director of CERRL, Prof. Parker leads collaborative initiatives aimed at fostering research-informed discussions on Catholic education. He is dedicated to developing strategic responses to ongoing challenges in the field while positioning CERRL as an international hub for research in Catholic and religious education. Recently, he secured funding from the Sisters of the Holy Cross Charitable Trust to explore the distinctiveness of Catholic Multi-Academy Trusts and the roles of their CEOs. Prof. Parker is committed to promoting inter-religious dialogue and learning through CERRL’s programmes and activities.
Prof. Parker is research lead for the School of Education, leading in preparing colleagues to submit to REF2029.
External roles
Prof. Parker serves as the Editor-in-Chief of a peer-reviewed Education journal, the Journal of Beliefs and Values: Studies in Religion and Education. He is a member of the editorial boards of the British Journal of Educational Studies, Practical Theology, and Religions and a trustee of the Society for Educational Studies. He edits the Brill Research Perspectives series on Religion and Education and Peter Lang’s series on Religion, Education, and Values. He is a past President of the History of Education Society, UK. He has been a member of the Peer Review College of the Arts and Humanities Research Council for more than ten years. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2006 and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2014.
Stephen Parker ORCiD research page
Research
Research profile
Research funding
Prof. Parker has successfully completed several funded research projects, totalling more than half a million pounds, including the following:
- ‘The Hidden History of Curriculum Change in Religious Education in English Schools, 1969-1979’ (British Academy)
- ‘Faith on the Air: A Religious Educational Broadcasting History’ (Leverhulme Trust)
- ‘An Oral History of RE Teachers’ (Westhill Trust)
- ‘The Worldviews and Values of 16-19 Year Olds’ (St. Peter’s, Saltley Trust).
Doctoral supervision
Prof. Parker has thus far supported nine doctoral researchers towards the successful completion of their doctorates. He would be pleased to receive enquiries about supervision in any of the following areas:
- History of education in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
- Catholic education and Catholic religious education
- Educational media and the history of educational technology
- International and comparative histories of religion and education and religious education
- The churches, state and education
- Faith and supplementary schooling
- Religious Education: history, philosophy, policy, practice and pedagogy
- Childhood and religion
- The history of Sunday schooling
- Religion in the Second World War
- The history of Christianity in Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
- Theories and theologies of education
- History of religious education, curriculum, pedagogy and texts.
Select publications
Prof. Parker has made significant contributions to the field, with a total of 2 monographs, 10 edited books, 20 book chapters and more 30 journal articles published.
Books
Parker, S.G., Cruchley, J. and Roberts, S. (forthcoming) Religious Education: a broadcasting history, Oxford: OUP.
Parker, S.G. (2005) Faith on the Home Front: aspects of Church life and popular religion in Birmingham, 1939 – 1945. Oxford: Peter Lang.
Edited Books
Schweitzer, F., Freathy, R., Parker, S.G. and Simojoki, H.(eds) (2022) Improving Religious Education Through Teacher Training: experiences and insights from European countries, Munster: Waxmann.
Francis, L.J., Lankshear, D. and Parker, S.G. (eds) (2021) New directions in religious and values education: international perspectives. Oxford/Bern: Peter Lang.
Cruchley, J., Parker, S.G. and Roberts, S. (eds) (2019) Sight, Sound and Text in the History of Education. London: Routledge
Strhan, A., Parker, S.G and Ridgley, S. (eds) (2017) The Bloomsbury Reader in Religion and Childhood. London: Bloomsbury.
Parker, S.G., Freathy, R. and Francis, L.J. (eds) (2014) History, Remembrance and Religious Education. Bern: Peter Lang.
Parker, S.G. and Lawson. T. (eds) (2012) God and War: the Church of England and Armed Conflict in the Twentieth-century. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Parker, S.G., Freathy, R. and Francis, L.J. (eds) (2012) Religious Education and Freedom of Religion and Belief. Bern: Peter Lang.
Book chapters
Freathy, R. and Parker, S.G. (2023) ‘Insights from the history of the education of teachers of Religious Education in England. Subject specialists and specialization’ in
Schweitzer, F., Freathy, R., Parker, S.G. and Simojoki, H.(eds) (2022) Improving Religious Education Through Teacher Training: experiences and insights from European countries, Munster: Waxmann
Parker, S.G. (2023) ‘Religious Education and the Re-Christianization of Western Europe in the Long 1950s: A Missed Opportunity?’ in Lamberigts, M, Pizzey, A and Schelkens, K. eds.(2023) Vatican II after 60 years: developments and expectations prior to the Council, Belgium: Brepols.
Parker, S.G. ‘Catholic Education’ in Harris, A. (2023) Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism (Vol. IV) 1914-present. Oxford: OUP.
Freathy, R. and Parker, S. G. (2021) ‘The Professionalization of Teachers of RE in England: A Case Study’ in Simojoki, H.; Schweitzer, F.; Henningsen, J., and Mautz, J-R. (2020). Professionalisierung des Religionslehrerberufs. Analysen im Schnittfeld von Lehrerbildung, Professionswissen und Professionspolitik. Leiden: Brill | Schöningh. pp. 501–527.
Parker, S.G., Freathy, R. (2020) The Church of England and religious education during the twentieth century. In Rodger, T., Williamson, P., and Grimley, M. (eds) The Church of England and British Politics Since 1900. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer.
Journal articles
Parker, S.G. (2021) ‘God is not dead in education, s/he never went away: beyond the secularization of the history of education’, Bildungsgeschicte: International Journal for the Historiography of Education 2021(2), pp.192-195.
Parker, S.G., Allen, S., Freathy, R. (2020) ‘The Church of England and the 1870 Education Act’, British Journal of Educational Studies 68(5), 541-565.
Doney, J., Parker, S.G., and Freathy, R.J.K. (2017) Enriching the historiography of Religious Education: insights from oral life history, History of Education, 46(4), 436-458.
Parker SG, Freathy R, Doney J (2016). The Professionalisation of Non-Denominational Religious Education in England: politics, organisation and knowledge. Journal of Beliefs and Values: Studies in Religion and Education, 37(2).
Freathy R, Parker SG, Schweitzer F, Simojoki H (2016). Conceptualizing and Researching the Professionalization of Religious Education Teachers: Historical and International Perspectives. British Journal of Religious Education, 38(2), 114-129.
Parker, S.G. (2015) Mediatising childhood religion: the BBC, John G. Williams, and collective worship for schools in England, c.1940-1975, Paedagogica Historica: international journal of the history of education, 51(5), pp. 614-630.
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.
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.
Parker, S.G., Freathy, R.J.K. (2011) Context, Complexity and Contestation: Birmingham’s Agreed Syllabuses since the 1960s, Journal of Beliefs and Values: Studies in Religion and Education, 32: 2, 247 – 263.
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.
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.
Invited lectures and presentations
Invited keynote, Catholic Record Society, Hinsley Hall, Leeds, July 2024, ‘Catholic education in a time of dissolution: towards an appraisal of the contribution of Francis Drinkwater (1886-1982) to religious education in home, school and parish in the mid-twentieth century’.
Invited presentation in light of the anniversary of the Bloom Review on Faith Literacy in public life, Woolf Institute for Faith in Public Life, Wesley House, Cambridge, May 2024, ‘Religious Education in the Bloom review’.
Invited keynote, Scottish Church History Society, Edinburgh, March 2023, ‘Differentiating religious broadcasting for children and youth in Scotland: priorities and personalities in the radio years’.
Invited keynote, Vatican II and Religious Education in the 1950s, KU Leuven, Belgium, March 2022, ‘Religious Education and the Rechristianization of Western Europe in the long 1950s: a missed opportunity?’