Building Arts-Based Social-Emotional Learning Practices‬ ‭ Through Embodied Professional Learning

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Nurturing Social-Emotional Learning Through the Arts

Abstract

This paper presents the preliminary findings and research agenda for a collaborative 2-year initiative supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. The project focused on designing and facilitating a Professional Learning Community where educators engaged in experiential arts activities drawn from partner youth arts programs to explore and support agency, identity, and belonging. Through collaborative artmaking, structured reflection, and intentional community-building, educators were encouraged to center joy, risk-taking, and vulnerability in their teaching. Preliminary findings suggest that embodied, arts-based professional learning enhances social-emotional learning instruction by humanizing pedagogy, fostering educator empathy, and creating safer, student-centered learning environments. This work contributes a replicable model for arts-based professional learning that integrates social-emotional learning into educational practice in meaningful ways.

Authors

• Yorel Lashley, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Erica Rosenfeld Halverson, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Stephanie Richards, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Emily Nott, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Tracey Bullington, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Lindsey Kourafas, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• John Louis Samuels, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Leila Rahnamanoabadi, University of Wisconsin - Madison