Abstract

In education, the great ecological and social transition implies a transformative learning mobilizing the head, the heart and the hands. A powerful tool in this respect is “Work that Reconnects”, developed as soon as the mid-1980s by the American ecophilosopher Joanna Macy. The article first explains what is meant by the “Great Transition”, how this implies a thorough reform of education and it introduces “transformative learning” as well as “Work that Reconnects”. The second part presents five major contributions of this transdisciplinary and holistic methodology: the place given to emotions in the intelligence on planetary problems; the composting of sufferance, which characterizes eco-anxiety, into fertilizer for commitment; the acquisition of an ecocentered vision of the world and of oneself; the virtue ethics culture, in particular gratitude, compassion and hope; the incitation to action by getting from an ecology of constraint to an ecology of desire. The third part of the article outlines the conditions, practical modalities and tangible ways of proposing WTR and its contributions to transformative learning in the academic world.