Peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and essays on Critical Wellbeing, social and emotional learning, and culturally sustaining practice by CADRE co-founder Dr. Roberto Rivera and collaborators.
What Teachers Need: How the Education Community Can Promote Sustainable Well-Being and Help Heal the Profession
This chapter explores how superintendents can lead a shift from siloed SEL initiatives toward Critical Well-Being, a humanistic approach that combines the promise of SEL and Transformative SEL with critical consciousness and participatory engagement, while also attending to superintendents' own wellbeing.
Read the full text →Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy
This article examines systemic SEL through the lens of Critical Well-Being, drawing on case studies from Kia Aroha College and Paseo Robelita Unified School District. It argues that centering youth, family, and community voice, and redefining what counts as success, helps schools become places where both students and educators thrive.
Read the full text →Self-published
This edited volume argues that the resources for healing already live in our communities, cultures, and creativity. It introduces the Critical Wellbeing paradigm and presents Hip Hop as a culture, ceremony, and pedagogy for collective flourishing, with stories from artists, educators, and culture keepers across several countries, plus reflection questions and creative prompts.
View the book →Medium
Drawing on a student's story from a program evaluation on Chicago's West Side, this essay makes the case for moving beyond stand-alone SEL programs toward a broader wellbeing paradigm, one in which schools and communities promote healing, nurture hope, and cultivate thriving.
Read the full text →Keeping Students Safe and Helping Them Thrive: A Collaborative Handbook on School Safety, Mental Health, and Wellness
This chapter shares a framework for helping youth thrive through culturally competent practice in classrooms, community programs, and strategic planning. It reframes young people labeled "at-risk" as "at-opportunity," full of assets and capable of leading change.
Read the full text →Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR)
This study shares the perspectives of nine African American youth in Fulfill the Dream, a social and emotional learning program that uses hip-hop culture to build social justice awareness and critical consciousness. It closes with recommendations for educators working with marginalized youth.
Read the full text →Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology
Drawing on interviews with 15 staff members at a predominantly African American urban alternative school, from teachers to mental health professionals to community educators, this study describes the school's distinctive, critically conscious approach to meeting students' social and emotional needs.
Read the full text →