Transformative learning through creative pedagogy in language teaching: Development of arts integration teacher training program

The growing focus on standardized outcomes in education has limited creative engagement, especially in language teaching, where teacher-centered methods prevail. Arts integration, which intentionally blends art forms into academic subjects, offers a promising solution to this challenge. However, its broader implementation is limited by conceptual ambiguity and a lack of adequate teacher preparation. To address this gap, a 7-week online training for language educators was developed and implemented. This qualitative case study investigates the influence of the training on 12 foreign language instructors from 10 universities. Data were collected through pre- and post-course interviews, weekly reflections, a researcher diary, and artifacts over a 10-week period. Thematic analysis was employed to explore how the training impacted participants' understanding of arts integration, their personal and professional development. The findings revealed that the training deepened participants' understanding of arts integration, shifting their perception from considering it a supplementary activity to a process-oriented, pedagogically valuable approach. Professionally, the training empowered educators by strengthening their theoretical foundation, enhancing their instructional confidence, and encouraging the application of interdisciplinary methods even in contexts without arts partnerships. Personally, the program fostered self-expression, emotional awareness, and reflective thinking, which contributed to greater self-confidence and a renewed sense of purpose in their teaching practice. These findings carry important implications: theoretically, they demonstrate that process-oriented arts integration training can substantially improve educators' conceptual clarity and reflective capacity enabling independent interdisciplinary practice. Practically, they highlight the need for flexible, hands-on professional development that fosters autonomy, collaboration, and sustained engagement with arts-based pedagogy.