About
Research
Email: sean.whittle@stmarys.ac.uk
Tel: 07748056694
Biography
Sean Whittle is a Senior Lecturer in Catholic Education at St Mary’s University, London, and a member of the Thea Bowman Research Centre. For over a decade he worked with Professor Gerald Grace as a Research associate. For almost two decades he combined these academic roles whilst working part-time as a secondary school RE teacher at a Catholic School in West London.
For a number of years he has been collaborating with other academics working in the field of Catholic Education Studies, serving as the secretary for the Network for Researchers in Catholic Education (NfRCE). He has also been engaged in a range of research projects (including a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at Brunel University on a Religious Literacy project, Researching RSE in Catholic schools in Northern Ireland, and a research project of a Catholic Multi-Academy Trust in Birmingham). More recently Sean has been researching the 'faith school debate'.
Sean has a warm and supportive disposition and this helps him get along well with is students and colleagues. He enjoys questioning established ideas and is a keen advocate for non-confessional Catholic education. Sean is happily married to Bernie, and together they work with the HNDL at various points throughout the year.
Research
Research profile
Sean’s monograph, A Theory of Catholic Education (Bloomsbury 2014), which was developed from his doctoral research, presents a robust philosophy of Catholic education that draws fruitfully on insights from Karl Rahner. He has edited six books on Catholic Education:
- Vatican II and New Thinking about Catholic Education 2016 [Routledge]
- Researching Catholic Education 2018 [Springer]
- Religious Education in Catholic schools in the UK and Ireland 2018 [Peter Lang]
- Irish and British Perspectives on Catholic Education 2021 [Springer]
- New Thinking, New Scholarship
- New Research in Catholic Education: Responses to the Work of Professor Gerald Grace 2021 [Routledge].
Also in 2021, he jointly edited with Dr Gareth Byrne Catholic Education: A lifelong journey [Veritas]. In 2023 and 2024, three further edited volumes are due for release. Since 2016, he has been collaborating with other academics working in the field of Catholic Education Studies by serving as the organising secretary for the Network for Researchers in Catholic Education (NfRCE).
Sean has also been engaged in a range of research projects including:
- a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at Brunel University on a Religious Literacy project
- researching RSE in Catholic schools in Northern Ireland
- a research project of a Catholic Multi-Academy Trust in Birmingham).
He has also frequently been a visiting lecturer at universities, such as:
- Oxford Brookes University
- Newman University
- Edgehill University.
Sean serves as chair of the academic association AULRE.
Sean holds a BA in Philosophy and Theology (Heythrop), a Master’s in Systematic Theology (MTh Heythrop), an MA in Education (IOE-UCL), a PGCE in RE, and a Doctorate in the Philosophy of Catholic Education (IOE-UCL).