About Us
Who We Are
Who we are
UNAtions is a group of motivated educators inspired by a spirit of genuine service, who demonstrate love through action and dedicate their precious time to sharing their knowledge and experience with members of other Institutions who share the same mindset and desire to change lives through education.
“Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone,
cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom.”
Bahá’í Writings
We believe the best way to address social inequity and injustice is through educational programs that educate youth to be morally coherent, competent, and active world citizens. The vital role teachers play in young people’s development and transformation cannot be overestimated.
Through UNAtions, we work with teachers from all walks of life who are passionate about improving lives and society through education. One teacher can influence generations of children and youth and open new horizons of possibilities for them. By supporting teachers, we enlighten citizens to make a difference in their schools, influence society and, therefore, the world. The more teachers we reach through UNAtions, the more children and communities benefit and thrive.
Our UNAtions project multiplies love and knowledge through teachers. We collaborate with schools and educators who seek to prepare students not only to succeed academically but also to serve others and make a difference in society. Teachers work with teachers and administrators with administrators in a cycle of study, consultation, action, and reflection to develop the competencies and capacities necessary to become more effective educators, further enabling them to bring out each student’s full potential.
We share our experiences and knowledge in a friendly, collaborative, and supportive manner to learn from and with one another. Both teachers and students benefit when we are on a learning path together.
Where we are today
When we founded UNAtions, team members visited one another's schools, so we hadn’t imagined how powerful online collaboration could be. Skype and other online communication and collaboration platforms were already part of our communication strategies and helped us to connect between visits; however, the pandemic required us to reshape our means of collaboration if we wanted to continue working together.
We found it possible to maintain and even strengthen our connections with the schools we collaborate with online. Having developed pleasant relationships based on trust with the employees of the other schools involved in our project helped. We had agreed that our conversations, although focused on professional issues, would not have a hierarchical touch to them. Our team openly shares the problems we are struggling with, which is genuinely relevant and useful for our partner schools. We do not have a prescribed sequence or way of offering professional development, and we personalize what we share based on the needs and interests of the partner school.
Now, with online communication being the only way to connect, we are expanding our online resources for workshops, videos, and curriculum materials and achieving our goals entirely online.
How We Began
Over the years, educators at School of the Nations have visited day care centers, nursery schools, and K-12 schools in the outlying regions of our community. We noticed that many of the day care centers operated with minimal educational resources and programs. In some, students sat on the floor and watched TV for the better part of the day. In several schools, teachers felt that their efficacy was gauged on how quiet and obedient their students were and cited classroom management as their greatest challenge. The need for teacher empowerment and professional development was evident.
In 2018, a small group at School of the Nations envisioned creating an educational extension project to offer services to teachers in public schools and day care centers in neighboring communities. We did not merely want to offer workshops or deliver specific services but rather develop a collaborative relationship with a few schools in the region. This relationship would be based on understanding, empathy, and learning together.
We called our group UNAtions, which stands for ‘Unite’ and ‘Nations’ (from our school name). We wanted to go beyond the occasional and episodic forms of service, such as inviting students from other schools to our campus for special days, which, although positive, has limited impact in terms of transformative capacity.
UNAtions was conceived as an educational extension project of School of the Nations, developed by educators for educators to share knowledge, experience, and methods to advance young people’s learning, their development, and their capacity to serve and contribute to bettering society.
Our first project was with Escola do Futuro in Manaus (please see our Sister School article). We have been working together for three years, learning from one another in friendship and humility. Our collaboration began with dialogue and consultation and is sustained by the same. We base all our projects on this approach. Little by little, we are expanding our support network to serve members of one of the most important occupations on earth—teaching our youth.