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Stephen G. Parker

Professor of the History of Religion and Education, University of Worcester

Stephen joined the Institute of Education at Worcester in 2008, becoming Professor of the History of Religion and Education in 2013. Since publishing his PhD thesis as Faith on the Home Front in 2005, Stephen has gone on to develop particular expertise in the histories of both religion and education and their interface, particularly across the twentieth century.

Awarded a prestigious Research Project Grant by the Leverhulme Trust, for a project entitled Faith on the Air: religious educational broadcasting history, c.1920-, Stephen is leading detailed research on this for a period of three years (2014-17).

In his on-going work, Stephen is a leading contributor to developing perspectives on the history of religious education, particularly focused upon the 1960s and 1970s. He has published widely on matters pertaining to the history of religion and education including articles in History of Education, Pedagogica Historica, the Journal of Beliefs and Values, and the British Journal of Religious Education. He is contributing editor of the Bloomsbury Reader in Religion and Childhood.

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 and historical perspectives upon education policy and practice. He is keen that the histories of religion and education should be studied in their own right, but is committed to demonstrating how history may inform the present.

Since 2009, Stephen has been an Associate Fellow of the University of Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor of the History of Religion and Education, University of Worcester