I am Head of the Religious Studies department in a school in the Southwest of England, having taken my first degree in Religious Studies and been engaged with the subject in some way or another for around the last twenty years. As a teacher for just over 12 years now, I therefore have a passionate personal, professional, and academic interest in students’ worldviews. After undertaking master’s level research with Warwick into teenagers’ worldviews – initially into my own school as a single case-study – I subsequently extended this to a larger-scale qualitative multiple-case study into the worldviews of teenagers for my PhD research. I am interested in these on several levels: firstly, the substantive content of what students themselves think, believe in, and value; secondly, the tacit assumptions, commitments and underlying orientations that characterise these worldviews; and thirdly, the implications of these worldviews in terms of developing inclusive religious education which represents, reflects, and incorporates the voices and ideas of students.

Email: c.hancock@warwick.ac.uk

Research Areas

Worldviews, religious education; teenagers; multiple-case study; secondary education.