Sociodrama for Training Applied Anthropologists

Abstract

As a practicing anthropologist with strong ties to university-based graduate training programs, I have occasionally been invited to give guest lectures to classes in applied anthropology, evaluation research, and public administration. When asked to share my practical experience, what I have most often wanted to communicate to students are the lessons learned on the job about how administrators, program people, and researchers get on with one another. I am referring to my own struggles to learn and adapt to the social realities of how public agencies make decisions about the proper use of social science research. While lectures on behavior in complex organizations may be helpful, experience is the better teacher. Toward this end, my colleague Carol Bryant, a Ph.D. anthropologist with the Lexington-Fayette County, Kentucky Health Department, and I have developed a technique to help trainees experience the multi dimensional character of applied social science problems in human service systems. Combining role play with conflict resolution goals, sociodrama gives students and trainees the opportunity to act out aspects of real world roles and problem situations in a non-threatening and supportive atmosphere.