Oral History as a Social Justice Project: Issues for the Qualitative Researcher

Abstract

I am writing this to assist researchers in training and experienced researchers in understanding ways to view oral history as a social justice project. This paper will illuminate the importance of oral history in terms of enriching the knowledge base of qualitative research methods as well. Oral history provides us with an avenue of thick description, analysis, and interpretation of people’s lives through probing the past in order to understand the present .The postmodern appreciation of the study of people and their stories, those stories from persons generally on the outside or periphery of society, offer a unique opportunity to view and conduct oral history as a social justice project.