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Professor John Canavan Appointed to Globally Recognised Research Role

Professor John Canavan appointed to globally recognised research role

Professor John Canavan has been announced as the new UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth, and Civic Engagement at University of Galway.

The appointment has been marked with an inaugural lecture by Professor Canavan, entitled Advancing Knowledge and Practice to Improve the Lives of Children and Youth.

The event showcased the work of the team of researchers at the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre associated with the Chair, the values and guiding principles underpinning their work and the programme’s (part of the UNESCO University Education and Twinning Network) contribution to the mission of UNESCO and the wider United Nations system.

Professor Canavan is a Personal Professor in Political Science and Sociology and the Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, which he co-founded at University of Galway in 2007.

Professor Canavan said:’ My vision for the UNESCO Chair is to make a significant contribution to global policy and practice in the field of children and young people’s wellbeing, through our team’s scientific research and evaluation programme focused on Empathy, Mentoring, Youth as Researchers, Family Support and Alternative Education.’

The 2025-2029 programme for the UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement focuses on five thematic areas - youth empathy and civic engagement; youth mentoring; family support; youth engagement and participation; and alternative education.

It also includes a number of objectives:

• to enhance and further develop existing work focusing on: Empathy/Social and Emotional Learning; Youth Mentoring; Alternative Education; and the Youth as Researchers (YAR) model.
• to develop a UNESCO position on family support as a policy paradigm that supports parents and wider family in meeting the needs of excluded children and young people in educational and inter-sectoral settings; and
• to embed policy and systems change as a cross-cutting theme across all work programmes seeking more effective bridging of policy and research worlds for greater societal impact.

The UNESCO Chair programme in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement at the University was established in 2008. The former UNESCO Chair, Professor Pat Dolan, who held the role from 2008 to 2024, has been appointed Professor Emeritus at University of Galway.

About Professor John Canavan

Professor Canavan’s academic career is defined by its focus on improving the lives of children, young people and their families through policy focused research and a sustained commitment to the education of professionals working with them. His research spans child protection and welfare, youth work, youth development, community development, educational disadvantage, and early years care and education. His teaching is orientated towards sociological perspectives and policy provision for children, youth and families, with an additional specialism in evaluation and programme planning. He has extensive experience in collaborative and interdisciplinary research partnerships, including with colleagues in the fields of education, health and psychology, both nationally and at international centres of excellence.

About the UNESCO Chair Programme
The Chairs programme is part of the UNESCO University Education and Twinning Programme (UNITWIN) advancing research, training and programme development in all of UNESCO’s fields of competence.  UNITWIN constitutes a vast network of interuniversity cooperation including over 1,000 educational institutions from 120 countries as part of which Chairs act as think tanks and bridge-builders between the academic world, civil society, local communities, research and policy-making.  As part of the UNITWIN programme, Chairs align their work with UNESCO in support of the ideals of the Organisation to advance forward-looking research programmes that can contribute to addressing complex and multifaceted development issues. UNESCO Chairs teams contribute to exploration of emerging issues, the development of international normative instruments to the implementation of policy recommendations at the national level. They have a key role in bringing together partners in academia, civil society, local communities and policy-makers for project implementation and are valued for communicating the humanistic values of UNESCO through teaching activities.