“How did you love me so fast?”: Co-creating conditions for educator SEL and well-being

This paper discusses an innovative approach to professional development focused on adult SEL and well-being called the LiberatED Fellowship. The Fellowship is a nine-month, hybrid program aiming to enhance educator practices at the intersection of SEL and justice to co-create classroom communities of care, belonging, healing, and liberation. We use data from our iterative feedback process to explain how the Fellowship centers humanity, honors identity, and cultivates healing for educators, themes that make up our SEL framework based on our 2023 study on educators’ dreams for SEL. We provide examples of how facilitators modeled each theme and highlight lessons learned and practices that contribute to optimal adult SEL development, promoting positive mental health and, ultimately, benefiting student social, emotional, and academic well-being.