In the Small Places: Stories of Teacher Changemakers and the Power of Human Agency

’In the Small Places reminds us just how much teachers matter in our lives and in the world. This touching tribute shows their dedication and the big role they play in creating a better future for everyone.’Agustin Porres, Regional Director, LATAM Varkey Foundation: Sponsor of the Global Teacher Prize

As the largest professionally trained group in the world, teachers know who is sick, missing, orphaned by disasters, and at risk for human trafficking. They are the glue that holds society together, and a development army in everyone’s backyard. Teachers are not the problem. They are the solution. Their voices must be heard. In the Small Places is a testament to teacher changemakers for our world’s intractable challenges: education in emergencies, corruption, racism, war, human rights, and girls’ education. Eleanor Roosevelt once asked, ＂Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.＂ In the Small Places is about teacher agency in those small places - writ large.

Dr. Fred Mednick founded Teachers Without Borders (TWB) in 2000 to connect teachers to information and each other to close the education divide. He is a Professor of Education Sciences at Vrije Universiteit, Brussels and was a Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Mercer Island, WA.