Building Arts-Based Social-Emotional Learning Practices Through Embodied Professional Learning: UW–Madison Community Arts Collaboratory’s Research Lab
WCER Working Paper No. 2025-2
Yorel Lashley, Erica Halverson, Stephanie Richards, Emily Nott, Tracey Bullington, Lindsey Kourafas, John Samuels, Leila Rahnamanoabadi, and Audriana Ryann Zeuske
July 2025, 35 pp.
ABSTRACT: This paper presents the preliminary findings and research agenda for the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Community Arts Collaboratory’s (Arts Collab) 2-year initiative supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. The research examined how arts-based, embodied professional learning can support school-based educators in developing and implementing social-emotional learning practices. The project focused on designing and facilitating a Professional Learning Community where eight educators engaged in experiential arts activities drawn from signature Arts Collab youth arts programs—Whoopensocker, Drum Power, and visual arts integration—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. The research identifies key themes including the “fallacy of time,” balancing structure with joy, and the transformative power of becoming learners themselves. 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 and sustainable ways.
keywords: social-emotional learning (SEL), arts education, professional learning, professional development, learning community, arts-based learning, embodied learning, reflective practice, arts integration, SEL in education, teacher training, experiential learning, creative pedagogy, arts and wellbeing, arts
