“We Laugh Much More Together.” How Art Courses in School Facilitate Unintended Apprenticeship Between Artists and Educators

This article explores how arts-based programs in Danish schools and daycare centers support educators’ professional development through collaboration with professional artists. Although such programs primarily aim to enhance children’s creative engagement in arts, our data from the Danish KUMULT! initiative – a cultural arts-based program involving professional artists and children from daycare centers to 9th grade – reveal that teachers and pedagogues also experience unexpected professional development. Drawing on interviews, surveys, observations, and teacher reflections from institutions across six municipalities, we identify a phenomenon of unintended apprenticeship, where educators informally adopt new methods and perspectives through practice-based collaboration with artists. Using situated learning theory, we show how such programs revitalize teaching and support creative, practice-driven professional development.