Dr Becky Parry

School of Education

Lecturer

EDU - Becky Parry Profile

R.L.Parry@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 8141

Edgar Allen House

Full contact details

Dr Becky Parry
School of Education
Edgar Allen House
241 Glossop Rd
Sheffield
S10 2GW

Profile: Becky is a Lecturer in Digital Literacies who established and now teaches on the new MA Digital Literacies, Culture and Education in the Department of Education. She has had a long-career in film and arts education and is especially interested in creative pedagogies. Becky’s research focuses on children’s media cultures and media production pedagogies. Becky is also an independent arts educator who leads evaluation activity for local cultural organisations.

Research interests: Becky’s research focuses on children’s media cultures and media production pedagogies. She is an advocate for curriculum change and approaches to pedagogy which acknowledge the value of children’s creative and cultural lives outside of school. Becky works alongside children and young people,especially those whose experiences are frequently marginalised. Her research draws on qualitative methods including action research, media production and participatory approaches.

Current Projects

Becky is currently leading a Teacher Development Action Research project ‘WorldBuilders’, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and in partnership with six schools, the National Videogame Museum and Maker{Futures}.

Becky is also leading work on an exciting new MOOC for teachers focused on Digital Literacies and Videogames.

Becky currently supervises doctoral students:

Helen O'Connor (Design Pedagogies)

Megan Wellington-Barratt (Photography Pedagogies)

Niamh Watkins (Primary Writing Pedagogies)

Sarah Smith (Teaching Digital Literacies)

Vicki Frodsham (Early Years Education)

Stefan Kucharczyk (Creative Pedagogies and Storytelling)

Josiah Tomasz Lenton (Conflict Education)

Norah Alturki (Digital Citizenship in Early Years Literacy Education)

Becky is especially interested to hear from new candidates for the EdD or Phd doctoral routes who are keen to study children’s media cultures, digital literacies or creative pedagogies.

Professional Memberships

Member of the Board for ECFA The European Children’s Film Association (Current)

Member of the United Kingdom Literacy Association Digital Literacies Task Force

Member of the United Kingdom Literacy Association

Publications

Books

Parry B (2013) Children, Film and Literacy. Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Edited books

Parry R, Burnett C & Merchant G (Eds.) (2018) Literacy, Media, Technology Past, Present and Future. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Journal articles

Facer K, Parry R, Taylor L, Bradley J & Little S (2022) Embracing the unpredictable effect of one person: an interview with Professor Keri Facer. Literacy, 56(1), 86-92. View this article in WRRO
Parry R, Taylor L, Little S & Bradley J (2022) Editorial. Literacy, 56(1), 1-2. View this article in WRRO
Cannon M, Connolly S & Parry R (2022) Media literacy, curriculum and the rights of the child. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 43(2), 322-334. View this article in WRRO
Parry BL & Taylor L (2020) Emergent digital authoring: playful tinkering with mode, media, and technology. Theory Into Practice.
Parry R, Howard F & Penfold L (2020) Negotiated, contested and political: the disruptive Third Spaces of youth media production. Learning, Media and Technology. View this article in WRRO
Burnett C, Parry R, Merchant G & Storey V (2019) Treading softly in the enchanted forest : exploring the integration of iPads in a participatory theatre education programme. Pedagogies: An International Journal. View this article in WRRO
Parry R, Cannon M, Scott F & Woodfall A (2019) Guest editorial: Young children’s engagements with digital media. Media Education Research Journal, 8(2), 5-9. View this article in WRRO
Burnett C, Merchant G, Parry RL & Storey V (2018) Conceptualising digital technology integration in participatory theatre from a sociomaterialist perspective: ways forward for research. Research Papers in Education. View this article in WRRO
Parry RL & Taylor L (2018) Readers in the round: children's holistic engagements with texts. Literacy, 52(2), 103-110. View this article in WRRO
Parry B (2016) Reading ads, reading the world. Education 3-13, 44(3), 325-338.
Parry B (2014) Popular culture, participation and progression in the literacy classroom. Literacy, 48(1), 14-22.
Parry B (2010) Moving stories: Exploring children's uses of media in their story telling and the implications for teaching about narrative in schools. English Teaching, 9(1), 58-72.
Harding J, Szakacs J & Parry B (2009) Children playing and learning in an online environment: a review of previous research and an examination of six current web sites. Young Consumers, 10(1), 17-34.
Parry B (2009) Reading and rereading ‘Shrek’. English in Education, 43(2), 148-161.
Parry R, Taylor L, Little S & Bradley J () Interview with Keri Facer. Literacy. View this article in WRRO

Chapters

Parry B (2019) Finding the Hidden Child: The (Im)Possibility of Children’s Films, The Palgrave Handbook of Children's Film and Television (pp. 567-583). Springer International Publishing
Parry B & Scott F (2019) Researching children’s play and identity in the digital age, The Routledge Handbook of Digital Literacies in Early Childhood (pp. 442-452). Routledge
Parry R, Haerizadeh-Yazdi N & Taylor L (2016) Time Travels in Literacy and Pedagogy: From Script to Screen In Parry B, Burnett C & Merchant G (Ed.), Literacy, Media, Technology Past, Present and Future London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Parry B (2012) Helping Children Tell the Stories in Their Heads In Bazalgette C (Ed.), Teaching Media in Primary Schools (pp. 89-101). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Book reviews

Parry B (2020) Using film to understand childhood and practice. Educational Review, 72(1), 133-135.

Research group: #supervisionaries - stories of brilliant doctoral supervision

From the moment Becky became my supervisor I felt supported, challenged and valued. She answered my queries, acknowledged my stresses and actively listened. Becky is inspirational and an asset to the University of Sheffield.

Teaching interests

Becky is the Programme Director for the MA Digital Literacies, Culture and Education and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Becky is also a experienced secondary teacher of English, Drama and Media and has a previous professional career in film and media education, including the establishment of a children’s film festival and a city wide youth journalism project.

Becky now supervises doctoral studies in film and media, digital literacies and education and is especially interested to hear from new candidates for the EdD or Phd doctoral routes who are keen to study children’s media cultures, digital literacies and creative pedagogies.

Postgraduate taught

Digital Literacies, Culture and Education MA

September 2022 start
1 year Full-time

Changing digital technologies have an impact on children's lives and present opportunities and challenges for educators. This MA is designed to help those who work with children to respond to these challenges and create new opportunities for literacy, learning, creativity and play.

Professional activities

Member of the United Kingdom Literacy Association
Member of the UKLA/Wiley Blackwell Research in Literacy Education Award Committee
Member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Review College
Participant in COST Action IS1410, ‘The Digital Literacy and Multimodal Practices of Young Children’ (DigiLitEY)
Regular reviewer for Palgrave Macmillan, Bloomsbury and Routledge and for journals including Literacy, Children and Media and Media Education Research and Film Education.