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ERIC Number: EJ1155134
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Oct
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1541-3446
EISSN: N/A
Activating Hope in the Midst of Crisis: Emotions, Transformative Learning, and "The Work That Reconnects"
Hathaway, Mark D.
Journal of Transformative Education, v15 n4 p296-314 Oct 2017
Joanna Macy's "Work that Reconnects" (WTR) is a transformative learning process that endeavors to help participants acknowledge, experience, and understand the emotions that may either empower or inhibit action to address the ecological crisis. The WTR seeks to work through grief, fear, and despair to animate a sense of active, empowering hope rooted in gratitude, compassion, imagination, community, and collective action. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from neuroscience, ecopsychology, and transformative learning, this paper analyzes how emotions may either impede or facilitate active engagement in ecological issues. The assumptions, goals, and process of the WTR are then presented in light of these insights. Finally, a case study involving the use of the WTR with young adults along with their reflections on the experience are considered to illustrate how the process may be employed as well as to analyze some of the benefits, challenges, and limitations of using this transformative learning process.
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A