Where Macro and Micro Histories Meet: Position, Trumps, and Pitfalls of Family History as a Form of Oral History in Flemish Education

Abstract

In pursuing a meaningful secondary school history education, at the same time aimed at fostering students’ historical thinking, oral family history can play an important part. Oral family history can be understood as the construction of a family history, through the use of oral history methods and techniques. It addresses the historical stories circulating via oral tradition within families, who range over three to five generations. This chapter starts by addressing the way students, teachers, history curricula, and history textbooks perceive oral family history. In a second and most important part, it especially examines the contribution oral family history can make to fostering students’ historical thinking. Through the analysis of concrete examples, the chapter explores pitfalls and trumps of oral family history in the pursuit of four important key elements of historical thinking: asking historical questions, historical contextualization, using oral history sources as evidence, and the concept of continuity and change over time. In making connections between private, micro histories, and macro history, oral family history can contribute to a meaningful history for students.