Speaker ◦ Scholar ◦ Teacher Educator

I help teachers and schools make their classrooms transformative.
I am a educational researcher at TU Dortmund University and a Senior Lecturer of Ethics and Multiculturalism at the HSPV NRW. I give talks and workshops for educators around Europe and the USA on central topics of educational practice. In 2024 I was awarded the Life Worth Living Teaching Fellowship at Yale University, and in 2021 I was awarded the TU Dortmund prize for excellence in teaching.
Whether you want to create transformative lessons and course designs, increase intrinsic motivation and a love of learning, advance democratic values and skills, or cultivate the character and moral understanding of students in your school, I am here to help.
In the Media.
On of the most pressing problem facing educators today is the “stimulation gap” — the stark contrast between the captivating consumption of digital media and the standard experience of school learning. How can the Pythagorean Theorem ever compete with a 15 second TikTok dance sequence? How we can capture the imagination of young people, when they are so deeply immersed in sensational media and exciting digital content? The answer to these questions is simpler than you think. Check out my TEDx talk.
Upcoming Events.

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
What if we started teaching students to see Math, Literature, Science and Democracy like the sea in Saint-Exupéry’s story?
Just Published.
Yacek lays a striking new path forward for educators seeking to develop a classroom of transformation."
Hannah Morgan, high school English teacher in South Chicago, on The Transformative Classroom
Yacek inspires the reader to a vision of the transformative classroom . . . that ignites the imagination. . . . I am confident Yacek’s book will inspire educators to take ethically justified risks in their pursuit to become truly transformative teachers.
William Merrifield, Director of Education at IDEAS (ideasworld.org), on The Transformative Classroom
It is rare to see a volume on moral education that . . . relates moral education to issues in today’s world. I strongly recommend this new volume which . . . adds nuance and substance to salient moral topics.
Kristján Kristjánsson - University of Birmingham, UK, and Editor, Journal of Moral Education on Moral Education in the 21st Century
A true landmark, for many years to come.
Rainer Forst - Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, on The Cambridge Handbook of Democratic Education
There is so much to appreciate in this boldly imaginative book.
Megan Laverty, Columbia University, USA on Moral Education in the 21st Century
Who I Work With.
Workshop Testimonials.
Get in Touch.
Every note submitted is read and I will do my best to respond to you in a timely manner!