Robert Parkes


Dr Robert Parkes is a writer, scholar and educator. He currently holds the position of Senior Lecturer in Curriculum Theory, History Education, and Media Literacy; and convenes the , at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Robert was Deputy Head of School in the School of Education, from February 2008 to December 2011, providing leadership in the most wide-ranging and substantial undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum renewal projects within the School of Education for over a decade. He has worked as a full-time martial arts instructor, shiatsu practitioner, and lecturer in oriental medicine at a natural therapies college in Brisbane; and a History, ESL, Learning and Technology Support Teacher in a suburban High School in Sydney. During his undergraduate education at the University of Sydney, Robert was named a Dean's List Scholar, received the Newcombe Hodge Essay Prize, and graduated from the University of Sydney with a Class I Honours Degree and the University Medal in Education. From 2003-2006 he lectured at Charles Sturt University, where he was a founding member of the Subjectivities in Teacher Education community of scholars led by Professor Bill Green and Professor Jo-Anne Reid. He completed doctoral studies on Valentine's Day 2006 under the supervision of Professor Jennifer Gore. His PhD work drawing upon the historical, philosophical, and literary methods of Poststructural Curriculum Inquiry re-examined the nature of the alleged ‘threat’ to ‘history’ posed by postmodernism, and the implications of postmodern social theory for History as curriculum. Robert is the author of two books, both with Peter Lang. In addition to exploring the cultural politics of education, his research work has focused on:
His early work attempted to rethink Vygotsky's notion of the Zone of Proximal Development through a poststructural lens. Professor Alain Senteni, Director of the Virtual Centre for Innovative Learning Technologies and the Chairman of the Lifelong Learning Cluster at the University of Mauritius drew on ideas from two of Robert's early academic papers to develop the thrust of his "transformative pedagogy" argument.

Important Publications

Parkes, R. J.. Interrupting History: Rethinking History Curriculum after 'the End of History', New York: Peter Lang.
Gulson, K. N. & Parkes, R. J.. From the barrel of the gun: Policy incursions and Aboriginality intwenty first century Australia. Environment and Planning A, 42, 300-313.
Parkes, R. J., Gore, J. M., & Elsworth, W. A.. After poststructuralism: Rethinking the discourse of social justice pedagogy. In T. Chapman & N. Hobbel, Social justice pedagogy across the curriculum: The Practice of freedom. New York: Routledge.
Parkes, R. J.. Teaching History as historiography: Engaging narrative diversity in the curriculum. International Journal of Historical Teaching, Learning and Research, 8, 118-132.
Gulson, K. N. & Parkes, R. J.. Educational policy, space, and the ‘colonial present’. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 1, 267-280.
Gore, J. M., & Parkes, R. J.. On the mistreatment of management in teacher education. In J. Sumsion & A. Phelan, Provoking absences: Critical readings in teacher education. New York: Sense Publications.
Parkes, R. J.. Reading History curriculum as postcolonial text: Towards a curricular response to the history wars in Australia and beyond. Curriculum Inquiry, 37, 383-400.
Parkes, R. J.. On the subject of pedagogies. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, University of Sydney, 4–7 November.
Parkes, R. J.. The crisis in pedagogy. In M. O'Loughlin, Conference proceedings International Network of Philosophers of Education, 7th biennial conference. Sydney, Australia: INPE and The Faculty of Education, University of Sydney.