Dr. John Canavan

Dr. John Canavan is joint founder and Associate Director of the Child and Family Research Centre. He has extensive experience in researching and evaluating social intervention programmes in the areas of child and family care, educational disadvantage, and community and local development. He received his PhD from Queens University, Belfast in 2006 and holds an MA in Community Development from NUI, Galway.

As Associate Director, John is responsible for oversight of the work programme of the centre and acts as Principle Investigator on a number of the centre’s large-scale projects. His ongoing areas of academic interest include Family Support, children’s policy and service delivery, and evaluation theory. Along with Professor Pat Dolan and Professor John Pinkerton, he has co-edited two volumes on Family Support – a co-authored text with the same colleagues Understanding Family Support (Jessica Kingsley) will be published in 2011.

John is actively involved in the Diploma / MA in Family Support Studies, programme which he co-founded. He also contributes to the wider teaching programme of the School of Political Science and Sociology as well as supervising Ph.D. candidates and Masters Dissertations. With Dr. Carolyn Heary of the Psychology School at NUI, Galway, and Professor Sheila Greene of TCD’s Children’s Research Centre, he established the Joint TCD / NUI, Galway Structured Ph.D. programme in Child and Youth Research.

Selected Publications

Coen, L. and Canavan, J. (2012) Globe: All Ireland Programme for Immigrant Parents. Final Evaluation Report, Galway: UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre.

Kennan, D., Fives, A., and Canavan, J. (in press) Accessing a Hard to Reach Population: Reflections on Research with Young Carers in Ireland. Child and Family Social Work, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2206.2011.00778.x

Fives, A., Kennan, D., Canavan, J., Brady, B. and Cairns, D. (2010) If I can make their life a little easier, then I'm happy: Study of Young Carers in the Irish Population, Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. Dublin: The Stationary Office.

Canavan, J. (2010) Family Support: Policy, Practice and Research into the Future. Adminstration, Vol. 58, No. 2, pp. 15-32.

Byrne, A., Canavan, J. and Millar, M. (2009) Participatory Research and the Voice-Centred Relational Method of Data Analysis: It is Worth It? International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 67-77.

Canavan, J., Coen, L., Dolan, P. and White, L. (2009) Privileging Practice: Facing the Challenge of Integrated Working for Outcomes for Children. Children & Society, Vol. 23, No. 5, pp. 377-388.

Canavan, J., Gillen, A. and Shaw, A. (2009) Measuring Research Impact: Developing Practical and Cost-Effective Approaches. Evidence & Policy, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 167-178.

Canavan, J. (2008) Resilience: Cautiously Welcoming a Contested Concept. Child Care in Practice, Vol. 14, No.1, pp. 1-7.