UNESCO Chair on Global Health and Education to continue work for four more years
The UNESCO Chair on Global Health and Education, which the University of Huddersfield co-hosts, has received a further four-year mandate to continue its work to strengthen health promotion, prevention and health education.
It was founded in 2018 by Professor Didier Jourdan at the University of Clermont Auvergne in France, who is an expert in the field of school health promotion. The University of Huddersfield and Dr Nicola Gray, who is renowned for her work on young people’s health, joined in 2022.
Now a third four-year mandate of the UNESCO Chair has been confirmed, and the work is expected to focus on:
- the impact of digital learning on the well-being of young people;
- ‘lifelong health learning pathways’, building capacity and health literacy;
- bringing colleagues together across the University – especially early career researchers and practitioners – to look at intersectoral working across health and education.
Dr Gray, Reader in Medicines and Health at the University of Huddersfield and Trustee of the Association for Young People’s Health, commented: “In the 80th anniversary year of the founding of UNESCO in London, it is fantastic to receive confirmation that the work we do in Huddersfield is of value to the UK National Commission for UNESCO, and UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.”
The fresh mandate comes at a time when Dr Gray delivered a plenary presentation to the International Association for Adolescent Health (IAAH) World Congress and the UNESCO team ran an international webinar on teacher wellbeing.
Dr Gray spoke on their work about the importance of keeping schools open in times of crisis at the IAAH event in Jamaica, which had been postponed from last year due to the after-effects of Hurricane Melissa. The main message was that ‘School is more than a place to learn’: the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide health crisis, and climate-related events like Hurricane Melissa, make a balanced approach to keeping schools open as much as possible an imperative for national Governments.
In addition, the Chair in collaboration with the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE) hosted an international webinar in February on Teacher well-being and personality potential as drivers of learners’ development, health, and well-being.
As co-chair holder Professor Jourdan opened the session by presenting the international work of the Chair. He introduced a central perspective about the mission of teachers: “There is no wellbeing without work well done.” This perspective highlights the role of systems, leadership, and policy in enabling these conditions.
Dr Min-Chien Tsai, Research Manager for the UNESCO Chair at the University of Huddersfield, then presented research evidence from the International Barometer of Education Staff Health and Well-being (I-BEST), outlining key global challenges faced by teachers and proposing practical, research-informed solutions.
The webinar highlighted a key message, that promoting teacher wellbeing requires co-created approaches that combine organisational support with teacher-led practices.
UNESCO Chair on Global Health and Education
A UNESCO Chair is a collaborating centre that produces and shares knowledge to support institutions and professionals in their work, based on the strategies of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
Its ambition is to create a network with the aim of building a global community to promote the development of policies and practices to increase collaboration in the fields of education and health.
For more information on the work on the UNESCO Chair on Global Health and Education at the University of Huddersfield please contact Claire Rushambuza, stakeholder manager.