Staff

Pat Dolan

Professor and Director, Child and Family Research Centre

UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement

PhD
M Litt

Office: Room 113, UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, Science and Engineering Technology Building
Telephone: 00 353 91 492930
Email: pat.dolannuigalway.ie

Member of the Children, Youth and Families Research Cluster (the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre)

Profile

Prof. Dolan is joint founder and Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre and an Academic Director of the Masters in Lifecourse Studies (previously MA in Family Support Studies). He also contributes to the wider undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes of the School of Political Science and Sociology as well as supervising Ph.D. candidates and Masters Dissertations in Family Support, Social Work and Community Development.

Professor Pat Dolan holds the prestigious UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement, the first to be awarded in the Republic of Ireland. The UNESCO Chair delivers a comprehensive programme of work towards the objective of promoting civic engagement and leadership skills among children and youth. The programme is built around core strands of research, teaching, policy and good practice and is underpinned by a range of national and international collaborations.

Prof. Dolan has worked with and for families as a practitioner, service manager, and academic for over 20 years. He has completed an extensive body of research on family issues including longitudinal research on adolescents, their perceived mental health, resilience and social support networks and has published in a wide range of academic publications. His major research interests are Civic Engagement in Children and Youth, Family Support, Reflective Practice and Service Development, Youth Mentoring Models, Adolescents Resilience and Social Networks. Prof. Dolan has also an extensive policy experience and was recently a member of a Government Task Force advising on the necessary transition programme for the new Child and Family Support Agency.

Teaching

Director of the Higher Diploma/Masters Degree in Lifecourse Studies

Research Interests

Family Support; Social Support; Resilience; Reflective Practice and Service Development; Youth Mentoring Models

Selected Publications

Frost, N. and Dolan, P. (2012) ’The Theoretical Foundations of Family Support Work’, in Davies, M. (ed.) Social Work with Children and Families, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 40-49.

Dolan, P. and Brady, B. (2012) A Guide to Youth Mentoring; Providing Effective Social Support. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Dolan, P. (2012) Travelling through Social Support and Youth Civic Action on a Journey towards Resilience in. Ungar, M. (ed.) Social Ecology of Resilience, Springer.

Dolan, P. Gundara, J. and King, L. (2011) The Role of Research for the Promotion of Rights and Values in Education: A Commemorative Paper - 60 Years into Human Rights Education, in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (ed.) Contemporary Issues in Human Rights Education, Paris, France: UNESCO, pp. 11-27.

Kennan, D. and Dolan, P. (2010) Inclusive Education: Aiming for No One Less. SangSaeng (A Publication by the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding under the Auspices of UNESCO). No. 29, Winter 2010.

Dolan, P. (2010) ’Children's Rights in Ireland: A Current Perspective on Implementation, from a Past Lens with a View to the Future’, The Irish Human Rights Law Review, Clarus Press.

Dolan, P. and Holt, S. (2010) Great Expectations: The Tension Between what Service Users Need and what Practitioners Can Deliver. Administration, Vol. 58, No. 2, pp. 99-123.

Dolan, P. (2010) ’Children's Rights in Ireland: A Current Perspective on Implementation, from a Past Lens with a View to the Future’, The Irish Human Rights Law Review, Clarus Press.

Featherstone B. and Dolan, P. (2010) ’Family Support’, Policy Highlights, National Children’s Bureau, UK.

Dolan P. (2010) 'Youth Civic Engagement and Support: Promoting Well-being with the Assistance of a UNESCO Agenda in Child Well-Being – Towards a Better Understanding of Children's Lives', in C. McAuley and W Rose (eds.), Child Well-Being: Understanding Children's Lives, London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Brady, B. and Dolan, P. (2009) ’Youth Mentoring as a Tool for Community and Civic Engagement: Reflections on Findings of an Irish Research Study’. Community Development. Vol. 40, Issue 4, 359.

Dolan, P. (2008) Social Support, Social Justice, and Social Capital: A Tentative Theoretical Triad for Community Development. Community Development, Vol 39, No. 1, pp. 112-119.

>> For additional publications, click here.

Supervision of Research

Ph.D. students: 

Danielle Kennan: Realising the Right to Participate: Creating the Conditions for Hearing the Voice of Children and Young People. 

Aileen Shaw: Investing in Youth Civic Engagement: Benefits to Society and the Funding Patterns of Nonprofits. 

Sheila McArdle: A Youth-Centred Exploration with Rural and Urban Zambian Youth Regarding Their Perceptions of Civic Engagement, Gender and Community. 

Tereza Brumovská: International Comparative Research on the Big Brothers Big Sisters Youth Mentoring Programme in Ireland and the Czech Republic. 

Tanja Kovacic: Narratives on Civic Participation and Resilience: Contextual, Cultural and Generational Understanding of the Phenomena in the Republic of Slovenia. 

Lisa O’Reilly: An Exploration of the Use of Play in Social Work Assessments with Children. 

Sue Redmond: An Explorative Study to Establish the Association Between Leadership Skills, Resilience and Social Support. 

Cormac Forkan (completed in July 2010): Building Evidence on How to Support Adolescents through a Comparative Tracking of their Perceived Social Support Outcomes. 

Concepta Killoran (completed in October 2010) Methodology and Evidence in Evaluation: Lessons from a Randomised Control Trial of a Youth Mentoring Programme in Ireland.

Carmel Devaney (completed in July 2011) Family Support as an Approach to Working with Children and Families in Ireland: An Explorative Study of Past and Present Perspectives Among Pioneers and Practitioners.

Prof. Pat Dolan has also supervised over twenty-five Master students in Family Support, Social Work and Community Development postgraduate programmes and in addition students from undergraduate degree programmes since 2003.

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