Reclaiming Psychological Wellness Through Arts-Based Mindfulness

Abstract

This critical qualitative study explores how racially and ethnically diverse youth foster psychological wellness through the arts and how their teachers reflect on arts-based mindfulness practices. While there is a substantial research basis for mindfulness and social-emotional learning (SEL), more literature should explicitly examine the cultural sustainability of this work. The conceptual framework used to explore the data for this study is rooted in the tenets of DisCrit and the principles of Disability Justice. The framework focuses on three areas of inquiry: artistic expression to promote more inclusive psychological wellness practices, disruption of traditional classroom power dynamics through centering student experiences and choice, and the role of student identity, including non-Eurocentric values such as interdependence, in promoting psychological wellness. The data were analyzed through a frame of critical qualitative inquiry, where findings were applied to recommendations for applied practices in implementing culturally inclusive SEL. This study addresses this gap in the research by exploring how the implementation of arts-based methods can be used to center student voices while encouraging students to construct individualized definitions of mental well-being. Using the arts, mindfulness practices can be designed to be more child-led, creating the potential for redefinitions of mental wellness that are culturally inclusive and resist the conceptions of wellness prevalent in traditional Western ideology.