An art activity oriented approach to mentorship for the professional development of teachers from different disciplines

An interdisciplinary approach to arts education in the fields of education and teaching has become increasingly important, as art and arts education is a discipline where all individuals are able to gain a cultural and aesthetic vision and develop creative points of view. The interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of the arts offer a multitude of perspectives and a rich learning environment. This study aims to contribute to the personal, cultural and professional development of teachers from different disciplines through arts education activities, thereby allowing them to use these experiences in their teaching processes in their own fields. The teachers being able to utilize their artistic experiences in their class activities, projects, as well as curricular and extracurricular activities, and ceremonies is crucial in providing the students a more effective learning environment and process. This study adopts a mentorship approach and was planned to be a case study. The author of the study is herself an arts educator and conducted mentorship activities as part of her experiences of an art activities-oriented process for teachers from different disciplines. The participants of the study, five teachers from different branches at the Sabri Özel Middle School in the Şemdinli district of the Hakkari province were designated by way of purposive sampling. Researcher and participant logs, semi-structured individual and focus group interviews, and written and visual documents created by the participants throughout the study were used as data collection materials. The data was analyzed via the descriptive analysis method. The study concluded that teachers from different disciplines achieve cultural awareness in an artistic capacity through art activities, and that they externalized the experiences they had in the process onto their own classes.