Organized by the International Society for Education Through Art (InSEA), the official partner of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization UNESCO), InSEA - Seminar 2018 was held in Thessaloniki, Greece on 16-18 July. Many artists, artist educators, arts educators, academics and practitioners from Greece, Cyprus, Serbia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, England, the United States, Brazil, Japan and Macao attended the event. Through round tables, plenary sessions and workshops, the seminar provided an outstanding forum for fruitful presentations and debates about contemporary social concerns in arts education praxis and research.
The Directorate of Press and Public Relations Office of Near East University released that Asst. Prof. Dr. Fatma Miralay from the Department of Arts Teaching of Atatürk Faculty of Education attended the InSEA - Seminar 2018 and presented her study on "The Contribution of Arts Educational Programs to Culture of Peace: Views of Teachers working in Northern and Southern Cyprus". In order to promote creative education and international understanding in all countries, InSEA - Seminar is held in a different country every year.
At the seminar that themed on "Social Engaged Forms of Arts in Education in Southern Europe, Balkan Peninsula and Mediterranean Countries", Fatma Miralay shared the results of her study and underlined the vital role of disseminating the culture of peace in societies through arts education. The articles presented at the symposium will be published in InSEA ART Education VISUAL Journal IMAG.
The Vital Effect of Culture of Peace via Arts Education in Societies is important...
The study, which Asst. Prof. Dr. Fatma Miralay conducted within the scope of her doctoral dissertation, discusses the crucial role of arts education in disseminating culture of peace in Northern and Southern Cyprus. Based on the views of arts teachers that participated in the study voluntarily, the study underlines the importance of determining the most appropriate course contents and practices in the line with the requirements of establishing culture of peace in Northern and Southern Cypriot communities. The study also draws attention to the importance of the identification of the problems that the teachers encounter within the process.
Contribution of Arts Educational programs that implemented in Northern and Southern Cyprus to Culture of Peace
In order to determine the contribution of arts educational programs that implemented in Northern and Southern Cyprus to culture of peace, the sample group and open-ended questions for interview has been selected with the utmost care. Asst. Prof. Dr. Fatma Miralay states that the study that designed on qualitative research method presents data that collected through focus group interviews with a total of 10 arts education teachers from Turkish Cypriot Community and Greek Cypriot Community. Based on the data obtained from the interviews with Turkish and Cypriot arts teachers, the study highlights that art education in culture of peace is an important factor that brings individual and social peace along with it. Besides, the crucial role of students, parents, school administrations and respective ministry in ensuring a sustainable culture of peace over the island of Cyprus is underlined. Based on the teachers’ views, the study deduces that educational institutions in both societies fail to do their part for the culture of peace because of the classical approach-oriented education system and concludes that current arts educational programs and state policies fall short to address the requirements of the culture of peace.