Arts can be used in many different ways in leadership education. This paper explores how students perceive four different arts-based approaches: (1) design/ visual interpretation, (2) object construction, (3) practical theatre exercises, and (4) practical dance exercises.
Data were collected using a questionnaire distributed among students at a business school in Morocco. Students were asked about their perception of arts-based methods in leadership education and different learning objectives that can be achieved. The resulting dataset was subjected to a cluster analysis.
The analysis unveils four distinct patterns in which students respond to arts-based methods. For a majority of the students, arts-based methods are welcome, but there is also a small fraction of students who are consistently critical about them. Furthermore, the clusters allow distinctions between preferences for different arts and varying expectations regarding the learning objectives.
The study lays the groundwork for a typology of different target groups that need to be taken into account in planning the use of arts-based methods in class. It enables leadership education to apply such methods more effectively, respecting diverse preferences and abilities of learners when designing courses.
