Peer-reviewed article
Human dignity education and artmaking: addressing student and teacher wellness together.
Law MA ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This perspective paper proposes combining artmaking activities with socioemotional learning to improve wellbeing for both students and teachers. The authors review evidence suggesting that classroom art programs can enhance emotional regulation, sense of belonging, and communication. The paper presents a framework for school-based mental health prevention that recognizes different needs across students, from those with subclinical concerns to those with clinical symptoms. Implementation involves collaboration between therapists, teachers, and artists.
Key points
- Youth wellbeing is at historic lows and teacher burnout has increased markedly
- Artmaking coupled with socioemotional learning may improve both student and teacher wellbeing
- Anticipated impacts include improved communication, connection, meaning-making, emotional regulation, and overall wellbeing
- The framework recognizes students with subclinical mental health concerns may benefit from lower-intensity programming than those with clinical symptoms
- Implementation requires collaboration among therapists, homeroom teachers, and artists across varied school settings
Limitations
This is a perspective paper that reviews literature and proposes a framework rather than presenting empirical evaluation data. It does not report actual implementation outcomes or provide evidence of effectiveness from pilot or full-scale programs.
Abstract
With youth well-being at historic lows and recent marked increases in teacher burnout this perspective paper examines the evidence that suggests by "making room" in classrooms and curriculums for artmaking activities coupled with socioemotional learning there may be improvements in teacher and student wellbeing. This paper reviews the literature on artmaking activities and human dignity education in school settings and proposes a novel framework for an inclusive school-based mental health prevention and intervention program for teachers and students. The framework recognizes that youth with subclinical mental health concerns may benefit from lower-intensity programming compared to students experiencing clinical mental health symptoms. Anticipated impacts for teachers and students include improved communication, a greater sense of connection and belonging, meaning making, self-expression, emotional regulation, and improved overall wellbeing. The paper concludes with implementation strategies for piloting this novel mental health prevention/intervention program in varied school settings with innovative collaborations among therapists, homeroom teachers, and artists. Keywords: socio-emotional learning, artmaking, dignity, teacher, student, wellness.