Happy to teach: Strengthening supportive school communities

Part III of UNESCO’s Happy Schools webinar series

UNESCO’s Happy Schools initiative provides governments with the tools that make the well-being of the entire school community a key lever for better and wider learning experiences and outcomes. If schools are to be vectors for high-quality educational experiences, they need to be happy environments. However, sustaining such environments requires holistic approaches and responses. UNESCO uses the four pillars of Happy Schools (people, process, place, and principles) to help policy-makers break down its concept into criteria to be targeted by system-wide policies.

On World Happiness Day 2023, UNESCO kicked off its “Happiness in and for learning” webinar series to discuss each of the four pillars of the global Happy Schools framework in a dedicated webinar session. This third installment will explore the people pillar, which concerns the well-being and relationships between the main actors within classrooms, schools, families, and communities.

This webinar on the Happy Schools people pillar will take place in the lead-up to World Teachers' Day, which is held annually on 5 October to commemorate the anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, which sets benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers, and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions. This webinar will celebrate World Teacher’s Day by highlighting the critical need to strengthen relationships between teachers, students, families, staff, communities and managers to ensure schools are happy places to teach and to learn.

This 90-minute webinar will explore the people pillar of the global Happy Schools framework to:

• Discuss systemic changes needed to improve relationships between teachers, students, parents, school leaders, staff, community members, and managers to establish and sustain positive learning environments where teachers are happy to teach and students are happy to learn.
• Share perspectives from around the world on the importance of supporting teacher well-being by strengthening the happiness of the school environment and attractiveness of the teaching profession.
• Encourage all to join Happy Schools in partnership and commit to happiness and a whole school approach to learning as the foundation of quality education.

Participants: Policy-makers, development partners, researchers, school leaders, teachers, young people and their guardians.

Format & session logistics: The webinar will take place on Zoom in English and Spanish.

Join the conversation on Zoom by registering here.