oral history in_21st_century_classroom

26
Oral History Oral History in the 21st Century Classroom Prepared for the American Federation of Teachers February 2010

Upload: civicvoicesaft

Post on 18-Dec-2014

219 views

Category:

Education


0 download

DESCRIPTION

 

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

Oral HistoryOral Historyin the 21st Century Classroom

Prepared for the American Federation of TeachersFebruary 2010

Page 2: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

Glenn WhitmanDean of Studies

[email protected]

Page 3: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

Today’s ObjectivesToday’s Objectives

1. Demonstrate the value of oral history as an educational and historical methodology.

2. Demonstrate that when students are empowered to be and think like oral historians, they can make lasting contributions to the communities in which they live and study.

3. Practice the oral history process.

Page 4: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

How do we account for such lists?&

Who is missing from these lists?

Student ResponsesSeptember 2004

• George Washington• Thomas Jefferson• Martin Luther King, Jr.• Ronald Reagan• Abraham Lincoln• John F. Kennedy• Bill Clinton• Only 3 women (Eleanor Roosevelt,

Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman) were mentioned among the list of 15 students

Student Responses

September 2009• George Washington

• Christopher Columbus

• FDR

• Harriet Tubman

• Abraham Lincoln

• Hillary Clinton

What are the first ten names in United What are the first ten names in United States History that come to your mind?States History that come to your mind?

Page 5: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

What is Oral History?

What it is:“A historical method thatcollects and preservesfirst-hand, spokenmemories throughrecorded interviews”

-Donald A. RitchieDoing Oral History

What it is not:• Journalism-“Kissing Cousins: Journalism and Oral History

(OHR, 2004)

• Folklore• Role Playing

Page 6: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

What skills and values should we teach What skills and values should we teach students to prepare them for the world students to prepare them for the world

they will inherit in the 21they will inherit in the 21stst century? century?

• Honesty and integrity• Flexibility• Teaming• Collaboration• Inclusiveness

• Value diversity• Problem solving

(Complex, real-world)• Public Speaking• Self-discipline• Leadership

Page 7: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

Preparing Students for their “Right Preparing Students for their “Right

Brained” FutureBrained” Future (not our Left Brained Past)

“The Six Senses”

1. Design

2. Story (Direction, Inspiration, Compelling narrative)

3. Symphony (Bringing skills and values together, Synthesis)

4. Empathy (EQ versus IQ)5. Play (Unsupervised,

unrestricted and imaginative)

6. Meaning

Page 8: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

Preparing Students for their 21Preparing Students for their 21stst Century Century

FutureFuture

“Five Minds”1. The Disciplined Mind2. The Synthesizing Mind3. The Creating Mind4. The Respectful Mind5. The Ethical Mind

“Seven Survival Skills”1. Critical thinking and problem solving2. Collaboration across networks and leading byinfluence3. Agility and adaptability4. Effective oral and written communication5. Accessing and analyzing information6. Curiosity and imagination

Page 9: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

Why I Use Oral History as an Educational Why I Use Oral History as an Educational MethodologyMethodology

• Trains the next generation of historians through “Cognitive apprenticeships” -Kim Porter, University of North Dakota

• Empowers student with their own learning (and confusion)

• Allows students to connect with the past that will be more enduring than

Jefferson or Lincoln

• Generates student “experts” who serve as co-teachers for the class

• Accessible to all types of learners, across grade levels, and disciplines

• Creates a more inclusive history for marginalized groups of people

• “It’s fun!” (“An underappreciated educational methodology”)

Page 10: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

Why I Use Oral History as an Educational Why I Use Oral History as an Educational MethodologyMethodology

• No geographic limitations

“You don‘t have to be famous for your life to have history.”

-Southern Oral History Program

• Everyman [and woman] can be his own oral historian.

• An oral history project can meet and often exceeds state and national

standards of learning.

• Helps to build intergenerational bridges

• An oral history project can be integrated across disciplines, grade levels and types

of schools and programs

• Opportunity for “Service Learning” (Allowing students to make important

contributions to the communities in which they live and study)

Page 11: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

It’s What Students Will Remember About It’s What Students Will Remember About Your Course!Your Course!

p. 10

Page 12: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

Challenges to Bringing Oral History into Challenges to Bringing Oral History into the Classroom the Classroom

1. Time and Scheduling

69% of K-12 classroom teachers identified time and scheduling as the “most substantial obstacle to classroom use.” (1987 OHA Committee on Teaching Survey)

2. National and State Standards

3. Finding teachers willing to “share authroity” with their students and interviewee-

teachers.

4. Providing educators and students with the proper training in oral history

methodology.

Page 13: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

Barbara TuchmanBarbara TuchmanPracticing HistoryPracticing History

Professional Historian

“Someone who has had

graduate training leading

to a professional degree

and who practices within

a university.”

“Amateur” Historian

“Someone outside the

university without a

graduate degree.”

The two need each other to help “democratize” the historical record

Page 14: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

The Student Oral Historian: The Student Oral Historian: Preserving History Today for the Preserving History Today for the

Historians of TomorrowHistorians of Tomorrow

“. . . Do it for me and for the legion of other social scientists and historians who will come upon your students’ work ages hence--and will learn important things about your community, and how it was to live in what we, from our limited perspective, call “modern times.”

- James W. Loewen, author Sundown Towns, Lies Across America and Lies My History Teacher Told Me in the “Foreword” to Dialogue with the Past: Engaging Students and Meeting Standards Through

Oral History

Page 15: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

Creating and Conducting an Oral History Creating and Conducting an Oral History ProjectProject

- Frank & Ernest by Bob Thaves

Page 16: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

When Creating and Conducting an Oral When Creating and Conducting an Oral History Project Think “P”History Project Think “P”

• Preparation

• Practice (educator and student)

• Process (Principles and

Standards of the OHA)

• Product

• Preservation

• Publication

Page 17: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

Bringing Oral History to Your Classroom or Program

Passive Oral History“An opportunity to learnfrom the actual historymakers themselves insteadof from textbooks.”

-Barry Lanman, COHE

Use of ready-made oral historysources (transcripts andrecordings)

-i.e. slave narratives from the Federal

Writer’s Project

Active Oral History

• Conducting an oral history project

• Requires extensive time and commitment

• “Authentic Doing”-Howard Levin, Urban School,

San Francisco, CA)

Page 18: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

(1) Oral History methodology and training (on-going).

(2) Interviewee selection (Where do you find interviewees?)

(3) Pre-Interview Worksheet and meeting

(4) Research/Content Background (Research timeline)

(5) Interview Questions (Get to the “sub-text”)

(6) Interview (Location, equipment, student safety, emotional questions/responses)

(7) Interviewer/Interviewee release forms (A must!)

Oral History is a Historical ProcessOral History is a Historical Process

Ch. 5

Goal: To make a useable, accessible, and enduring primary source

“Ipod Nation”

Page 19: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

(8) Transcription (Does every project need to be transcribed in full?)

- “At the time of the project, I can remember complaining profusely about how laborious transcription is. Here I will grudgingly admit that which did not kill me made me stronger.”

- Libby Barringer, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School Student

- Cost often necessitates Time Indexing Log rather than complete transcription

(9) Analysis/Interpretation (bias, distortions, presentism, trauma). All historical sources need to be

treated with equal skepticism.

(1) Archiving/Preservation/Publication “It becomes history when booked” (James Loewen)

The Project ProcessThe Project Process

Page 20: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

The American Century ProjectThe American Century Projectat St. Andrew’s Episcopal Schoolat St. Andrew’s Episcopal School

www.americancenturyproject.orgwww.americancenturyproject.org

Page 21: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

IntervieweesInterviewees650 interview tapes and transcriptions

• Sandra Day O’Connor• John L. Lewis• General John

Shalikashvili• Marion Barry• Ernest Green• Jack Valenti• Helen Thomas

• Bob Rast

• Ivona Kaz-Jepsen

• Warren Allen Smith

• Ernest Burke

• Eugenia Kiesling

• Virginia Ali

• Ann Stevens

• Joey Thompson

Page 22: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

American Century Project ArchiveAmerican Century Project Archive

Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage - www.mdch.org

Dreyfuss Library, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School

Page 23: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

• "Not only did it teach us about history, but it taught the larger message of respect and responsibility that come with historical knowledge.”

(Drew Saylor, SAES student)

• "In the case of my project, examining the role of women in the 1950s, my interview totally contradicted my research. I could not understand why this woman did not hate staying at home raising five children with no career or educational opportunities. I thought that I had done something wrong. What I learned, however, is that her story was one that had never been told. I told her story.“

(Amy Helms, SAES student)

Project FeedbackProject Feedback(Students)(Students)

Page 24: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

“I got the packet today . . . I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed reading it, and how much it touched me. These are questions I’ve always wanted to ask you, and about you, and the war that I always wanted to know about, and hear you talk about. I guess it’s like Carol [son’s wife] said, “it’s easier to talk to a stranger than to talk to someone who is close to you.” I know you’ve talked to me a little about it, but never this in depth or that much about your feelings. I want you to know that after reading this, even more so now, that I thank God that my father is alive and that my children have a real grandfather instead of just a memory to hear about from me.”

Page 25: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

The Student Oral Historian: The Student Oral Historian: Preserving History Today for the Preserving History Today for the

Historians of TomorrowHistorians of Tomorrow

“Without the student

oral historian far too

many stories would be

lost; it would be like a

library burning down.”

- Donald A. Ritchie, Doing Oral History

St. Andrew’s Episcopal School Student Michael Bryan with

interviewee Ernest Burke a player in the Negro Baseball League

Page 26: Oral history in_21st_century_classroom

Resources/Must Haves for Oral History Resources/Must Haves for Oral History EducationEducation

• Lanman and Whendling, Educating the Next Generation of Oral Historians

• Oral History Association (Extensive Resource Information under “Education Committee”) http://www.dickinson.edu/oha/

• Ritchie, Doing Oral History

• Whitman, Dialogue with the Past

• Wood, Oral History Projects in Your Classroom

• Become a member of the OHA or COHE