Practice Of Oral History Research Articles

Heritage Transmission From Past to Future: A Practice‐Based Exploration of Value Education Through Oral History

ABSTRACTStudies connecting oral history and value education as a method of learning and teaching are a few, and most are based on theoretical knowledge. There are limited studies that practically apply value education, using oral history as an example for researchers and readers. We designed this research to fill the gap between theory and practice. The current study aims to integrate oral history practices into value education and provide a practice‐based example. Our problem statement: “Can the oral history method contribute to students' learning of the values?” To answer this question, we conducted collaborative action research with 20 students studying in a public secondary school over nine weeks to teach them the values of attaching importance to family unity, solidarity, respect, and responsibility, which we determined to be within the scope of the social studies course. At all stages, we collaborated with the social studies teacher, students, and family members of the students. We used various data collection tools, including knowledge assessment forms (pre and post), implementation assessment forms, and semi‐structured interview forms with the students. After the data collection, we used the content analysis method. The study results showed that implementing value education through oral history effectively taught the objectives' values. In addition, thanks to the practice, students could perceive the change and continuity of values and develop their skills. Based on the research results, we can say that oral history should be used more as an innovative method in value education.

Building bridges and preserving voices: key factors in community oral history stewardship

PurposeThe study aims to enhance our understanding of shared community oral history stewardship by exploring its practices and challenges from the perspectives of the stakeholders involved.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed in-depth semi-structured interviews with community oral history stewards. Each interview focused on their experiences and perspectives regarding community-based oral history projects. The interview data were transcribed and analyzed using a grounded theory approach.FindingsCommunity oral history stewards found oral history stewardship entails substantial effort, long-term commitment, and challenges. They concurred on the importance of partnerships between communities and archives in preserving community stories, with institutional archives providing valuable support, resources, and engagement beyond mere preservation platforms. Establishing trust between communities and archives emerged as a fundamental requirement for fruitful collaboration.Originality/valueCommunity oral history has stood out as the prevailing form within the theory and practice of oral history, but its shared stewardship practices have not been thoroughly explored from the stakeholders' viewpoints.

Capturing ‘small stories’ from the lake: At the MAA/Ground Residency

Drawing has long been established as a conversational tool, as notation passed between individuals or with larger groups to create an evidence trail of ideas. There is a fascinating sociality to the activity, finding parallels with the dynamics of a conversation, as artists enter similar cycles of inspection, re-conception and re-examination, pushing ideas forward, asserting focus and altering original intentions. The MAA/Ground Residency offered the opportunity to examine this sociality on a more nuanced level, by applying approaches commonly used in the practice of oral history, to devise a model of drawing that can sensitize participants to the nature of human interaction and explore the ‘smaller stories’ contained in the details of shared experiences. The following report maps the first stages of this study from initial interaction with the site of the residency at Niemelä house, E. Finland, and onto a series of drawing conversations with its attendees. The results start to show how, as a particular field of the visual arts, the drawing process can be shaped by situated ‘small talk’, reflected in equivalent hesitancies and utterances in emerging and growing ideas, and in turn, how narrative analysis can be used to interpret and explore the sociality of drawing taking place.

The Role of Oral History in Acquiring Chronological Thinking Skills and Perception of Change and Continuity Skills via Van Weddings

The aim of this research is to reveal the contributions of oral history practices about the wedding traditions in Van to enable students acquire skills in chronological thinking and perception of change and continuity. The research was conducted using a case study, which is one of the qualitative research methods, and convenience sampling was employed within the framework of purposeful sampling in the study. Students conducted interviews with 60 volunteer participants, who were family members aged 50 and above regarding Van wedding traditions. The students prepared a report based on the participant’s statements, and interviews were conducted with the participating students to monitor and assess the study. Data collection tools such as documents, semi-structured interview forms, and focus group interviews were utilized. In the study, the data obtained regarding students’ skills in perceiving change as well as continuity chronological thinking skills were evaluated using checklists developed by the researcher. Descriptive analysis was performed on the data. This research revealed that the students were able to evaluate history from a broad perspective both chronologically and culturally, according to the determined criteria and they were also able to comprehend the reasons behind the occurrence of events from the past to the present. Additionally, it was determined that students were able to identify what has changed and what has remained unchanged in terms of their skills in perceiving change and continuity.

The Practice of Oral History Using School History: Jinwi Elementary School Students’ ‘Remember and Record Jinwi’

The Practice of Oral History Using School History: Jinwi Elementary School Students’ ‘Remember and Record Jinwi’

Experiencing Oral History With Prospective Social Studies Teachers

It is known that oral history studies have a positive effect on students’ learning, skills, attitudes, and motivations. In this direction, it has an important place in the context of student-centered constructivist practices in teaching different subjects in social studies courses. Social studies teachers should have sufficient knowledge and skills about oral history to carry out effective studies in their classes. Hence, the training of teachers in this context during their undergraduate period is of great importance. This study aims to share the experiences of oral history studies conducted by prospective teachers attending the department of social studies education at a state university in Türkiye. Within the scope, the prospective teachers’ oral history studies under the lecturer’s guidance were examined and evaluated by considering the determined criteria. By making inferences and sharing experiences about this process, it was thought that researchers, teacher educators, and teachers could be given an idea about the issues that should be considered in the oral history practices in teaching. The data collection methods of this research which was realized in the case study design, were observation, document examination, and interview. Content and descriptive analysis methods were used in the analysis of the data. As a result, it was determined that prospective teachers had difficulties in some stages of oral history research and at the same time, they achieved significant gains. Based on the experience gained from the research, some suggestions were made to improve similar studies and classroom practices.

Failing to Connect? Methodological Reflections on Video-Call Interviewing during the Pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a reconsideration of oral history practices, at a time when face-to-face contact was widely discouraged. This article draws upon a small sample of oral history interviews conducted remotely using video-calling software, to reflect upon the longer-term place of the video-call as a tool for oral historians. There are both practical challenges and benefits in relation to online interviewing with regards to security, accessibility, and comfort. More specifically, however, this article discusses the different ways in which memory and emotion may be shared on a video call and the wider implications of the virtual setting for rapport-building and shared authority between interviewer and interviewee.

SOSYAL BİLGİLER ÖĞRETİMİNDE SÖZLÜ TARİH ÇALIŞMASINA BİR ÖRNEK: TOKAT MERKEZ MAHALLE İSİMLERİ

Gündelik yaşantımızda sıradan insanların kendi yaşantılarından ve anlatılardan hareket eden sözlü tarih verileri toplumsal yaşamda kültürün birer yansımasıdır. Toplumsallaşma ve bir arada yaşam ile ortaya çıkan bu ortak kültür bireyleri birbirlerine bağlayıcı kılma ve bir arada yaşamayı içerisinde barındırmaktadır. Tarihin yazılı kaynakları kadar toplumun hafızasında yer alan tarihsel bilgiler de büyük önem arz etmektedir. Bireylerin birer canlı tarih olarak bilgi birikimlerinin paylaşılması ve gün yüzüne çıkarılması noktasında sözlü tarih büyük öneme sahiptir. Kaybolmaya yüz tutmuş kültürel mirasa dayalı çeşitli bilgi ve olaylar toplumları bir arada tutan temel mitler olarak ifade edilebilir. Bu noktadan hareketle çalışmamızın amacı Tokat il merkezin de yer alan mahalle sakinlerinin yaşadıkları mahalle isminin anlamı ile ilgili bilgileri sözlü tarih uygulamaları ile belirlenmeye çalışılmıştır. Çalışma da nitel araştırma desenlerinden olgu bilim yöntemi kullanılmış olup araştırmaya konu olan mahalleler Tokat merkez ilçe de yer alan 42 mahalle ile sınırlandırılmıştır. Bu amaçla hazırlanan görüşme formu ile bizzat mahalle sakinlerinden yaşça daha büyük yetişkin katılımcılarla görüşme gerçekleştirilmiş olup konuyla ilgili veriler kayıt altına alınmıştır. Sosyal bilgiler öğretiminde yer alan sözlü tarih uygulamaları ile birey yaşadığı çevre ve soy ağacıyla ilgili bilgileri bizzat elde edebilmektedir. Böylece Tarih öğretimini daha eğlenceli kılma ve bilgiyi keşfetmesi sağlanmaktadır. Toplumu bir arada tutan kültürel miras ve kültür öğelerinin gelecek kuşaklara aktarılması, topluma ait olma ve farkındalık oluşturmak ancak tarihsel bilgi birikimi ile gerçekleşebilmektedir. Araştırma bulgularında 7. Sınıf öğrencilerinin sözlü tarihe ilişkin bilgilerinde eksilikler olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır. Öğrencilerden bazıları ise cadde, sokak isimlerini yaşadıkları mahalle olarak ifade ettikleri görülmüştür. Ayrıca 39 mahalle isminin anlamı, isminin belirlenmesinde etkili olan durumlar ortaya konulmuştur.

Together or apart? Doing biographical research and oral history in an interdisciplinary context

This article compares research and analytical approaches with biographical materials in the fields of biographical research in sociology and oral history practised by a historian. The reflection is based on the experience of long-term cooperation between biographical sociologists and oral historians in the Polish research context. These contacts have created a space for the fruitful exchange of experiences in the field as well as for strengthening the researchers’ distinctiveness and disciplinary identity. It also makes it possible to identify various concerns, both mutual and individual, for each research field. The main objective of this article is to share perspectives, highlight the similarities and differences between the two disciplines, and to show concerns related to the practice of oral history and biographical research, especially those close to the boundaries between the two approaches when they use the same tool, that is, the autobiographical narrative interview. The first section of the article focuses on the specifics of each approach. It then describes the different results of the common research practice and their consequences in relation to anonymising, archiving and reanalysing the data. Ethical issues are embedded into the whole course of our argument.

‘Deterrence can be boring’: boredom, gender, and absence in Britain’s Cold War military

ABSTRACT Boredom was an integral part of Cold War experience in western Europe and its manifestations and management were key political, military and social considerations during this long conflict, for militaries in particular. Using over 60 original oral history interviews (both individual and group) with a wide range of former residents of British military bases in West Germany, this article explores the presence and articulation of boredom within militarized communities. Its existence among soldiers was widely acknowledged, expressed and managed, but boredom was also refracted through prevailing gender and social hierarchies, permitting particular forms of boredom to be expressed, while silencing others. Through an examination of both soldierly boredom and the testimonies of military wives, this article suggests not only that boredom needs to be included in social histories of the Cold War – and conflict more broadly – but that we must understand boredom as a social phenomenon embedded within specific historic contexts. Its articulation is deeply affected by cultural and societal norms, particularly for groups with limited ‘agency’, with long-term implications for historical researchers looking for its traces. This article finishes by suggesting productive ways in which oral history can address militarized boredom and what, in turn, scholars of boredom might learn from oral history practices.

Crisis Documentation and Oral History: Problematizing Collecting and Preserving Practices in a Digital World

ABSTRACT Collecting in times of crisis is a precarious task. In recent years, oral historians have considered the risks and pitfalls that so called crisis or rapid response collecting entail. However, in countries where oral history practices are not dominant within the cultural heritage sector, these discussions surrounding ethics and collecting have had little impact. In this article we problematize the absence of oral history perspectives on the ethics of crisis collecting through a Swedish case study involving the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) and Sweden’s most prominent cultural heritage institution, Nordiska Museet (the Nordic Museum). In 2015, DN started interviewing refugees for a social media-based project entitled RefugeeSweden. Excerpts from the interviews as well as photographs of the refugees were published on Instagram and Twitter, with Nordiska Museet later acquiring this material. Through this case study we show how the act of digitization constitutes a process of transformation which fundamentally affects collections and how they can be understood. In addition, we demonstrate how seemingly inclusive notions of digitization and representation can obscure exclusionary practices of institutions that have not considered cocreation or participatory practices.

Sociocultural and Professional Identity of the Generation of Soviet “Baby-Boomers” (On the Materials of the Deep Interviews of the Actors of the Scientific and Educational Community of OmSPU)

Based on the methodological practice of oral history, as well as the method of in-depth interviews, the article reveals factors, content and results of the development of the socio-cultural and professional identity within the academic and teacher community consisting of the post-war generation born in 1943–1953. It establishes that markers of the identity of the generation include joint historical experience, models, and programs of socialization cultivated during the Soviet era, general life experience in the process of professional communication. When reconstructing the socio-cultural identity of baby boomers, the authors take into account the thesis, according to which the differentiation of generations is due to the experience of significant historical events, perceived as historical caesura. It also establishes that crises, scientific revolutions, socio-political innovations that influence many age groups are experienced differently in the certain phase of a certain generation. This study identifies the stages of the development of the communicative consent of the representatives of the baby boomer generation, the ethical principles of community contacts in the context of the socio-cultural background of the 2nd half of the 20th century. The authors pay particular attention to intergenerational communication, which defined the system of moral and ethical ideas of baby boomers, influenced the choice of strategies and practices of social behavior in the conditions of generally accepted norms of the USSR.

Literature Research on Oral History of Music--Take the Literatures Collected by CNKI as an Example

In recent years, the practice of oral history of music in China has achieved a lot with the holding of "The First National Symposium on Oral History of Music" in Beijing in 2014. The author through the CNKI to collect relevant academic theories, from the "history evolution ", "methods" and "application", summarized the three aspects, expounds the current music oral history research status in China, understand the basic context, the subject for the future further music oral history provide theoretical basis for related research work.

Discussion aspects of interdisciplinary interaction of journalism and oral history

The article presents the context of modern scientific debates on the boundaries of interdisciplinarity. The subject of the study is the common procedure of the use of oral history practices in the mass media space. The oral history itself is changing rapidly under the pressure of digital platforms such as StoryCorps (USA), Listening Project (UK), The Story Project (Australia), and The Tale of a Town (Canada). Another key thing is the fact that the changes affected not only the technological process of archiving and dissemination of information but also the basic foundations of oral history, which is its methodology. The in-depth interview is replaced by the “rapid response collecting” method and historical storytelling. The purpose of the article is to outline the discussion field of the modern scientific discourse of the problem, to present the most significant interdisciplinary interaction using the example of world and Ukrainian media, namely: coverage of contradictory and ambiguous interpretations of historical facts; narrative; prolonged communication; multimedia and multiplatform. The research methods are traditional empirical methods of observation and description, as well as paradigmatic analysis of the functional features of oral history practices in journalism. Results of the research. Basic characterological directions proposed in the study allowed us to present the main points of discussion in various aspects: the use of oral historical materials, especially “hidden history” through the eyes of eyewitnesses, become an additional source of journalistic clarifications, investigations and expansion of the information agenda; addressing marginal themes of history, giving a voice to terrorist groups and participants in genocides poses extremely complex and ethically controversial questions to the audience; multimedia and multiplatform give new life to oral history information, while performance, theatre and participation are added to the usual practices of new media. The most expressive manifestation of changes in this interdisciplinary discourse is the practice of digital storytelling; its media use is illustrated by the BBC’s Capture Wales digital storytelling project. As part of the scientific discussion that has continued for the last few years, the issues of democratization of history, mass inclusion in digital archives, the creation of powerful social projects, and attempts to distance oral history as a separate discipline have been actualized. Moreover, it is recognized that, like any creative practice, interdisciplinarity remains a wide field for experimentation and creativity.

Celebration, preservation and promotion of struggle narratives with a focus on South African women of Indian heritage

The relevance and value of oral history practices and principles and its impact on community history gives credence to its relationship with the liberation struggle. The liberation struggle heroines that formed the cohort of interviewees for this research were members of the South African Indian community. This interview- research process provides a platform that allows the veteran South African female of Indian Heritage to reflect almost 50 years later and be a part of the celebration, preservation and promotion of struggle narratives. The women who were interviewed for this research shed light on celebrating political achievements, whilst remembering and recalling the educational, material and economic assistance from international sources. Furthermore, these women referred to the preservation of South Africa’s unique heritage as, South Africa is united in its diversity. Promoting the values of the liberation struggle by sharing her anecdotes, honouring the cadres, relating experiences, retelling tales and sometimes possibly reliving military camp days completed the oral history interview process and eventually added to the body of knowledge that already exists and partially filled the gaps that exist. Contribution: From a multidisplinary religious perspective, this article contributes to the historical and social-cultural discourse on liberation theology within a paradigm in which the intersection of social sciences and humanities generates a transdisciplinary contested discourse.

Same Interviewee, Different Interviewer: Researching Intersubjectivity in Studies of the Reserved Occupations in the Second World War

ABSTRACT In 2008 and 2009, Arthur McIvor, director of the Scottish Oral History Centre at the University of Strathclyde, interviewed two men who were employed in reserved occupations in the Clydeside region of Scotland during the Second World War. In 2010, I reinterviewed the same two men as part of my PhD project exploring the wartime experiences of men in reserved occupations in the Clydeside area. The two interviewees were Henry (Harry) McGregor, born in 1922 in Glasgow, who worked as an engineer in wartime; and William (Willie) Dewar, born in 1924, also in Glasgow, and employed as a draughtsman in Hyde Park Railway Works in the Springburn area of the city during the war for the North British Locomotive Company. I thus found myself with a rare opportunity to compare the two sets of interviews, which had a common focus on the impact on masculinity of working in a reserved occupation. Little has been written on what happens when the same interviewees are revisited by different interviewers asking questions about the same subject area. This article briefly outlines the background of the reserved occupations before focusing on composure and relation of the reserved occupation war experience. I consider the literature on the popular memory of the Second World War in Britain and the extent to which the interviewees might have felt “prepared” for their interviews with me. The article offers a new and fascinating insight into the nature and practice of oral history, enabling a closer look at interactions among various factors at play, including memory, composure, and intersubjectivity, and how interviewees narrate their stories in the context of Second World War Britain.

(Un)Naming: Ethics, Agency, and Anonymity in Oral Histories with Veteran-Narrators

ABSTRACT This article examines the ethics of anonymizing interviewees who asked to be named in oral history research. Drawing on my experiences administering a large oral history project with Vietnam veterans, I examine four stages of oral history practice—recruitment, the interview, analysis and interpretation, and publication—and argue that (un)naming interviewees fundamentally changes the terms of their consent. (Un)naming reopens ethical dilemmas at the core of oral history practice: the incongruent goals of the interviewer and interviewees; empowering interviewees and contesting experience; misaligned understandings of sensitivity and taboo; observation and defining off-the-record, interpretive conflict; and unconscious advocacy. However, the digital era creates new and unforeseen consequences of naming interviewees in our research, and our responsibility to protect interviewees from potential ramifications outweighs the ethical dilemmas that (un)naming pose. (Un)naming also reveals complex power dynamics between the interviewer and different interviewees, indicating that interviewers should be more attentive to power differences within the interview group. The most ethical framework for naming may be an individualized approach, led by careful negotiations with each interviewee about the meaning and consequences of their participation in our research.

Voice of history: reflections on the theory, practice and value of oral history

Voice of history: reflections on the theory, practice and value of oral history

Oral History and Football Practice in Brazil: From an Emerging Methodology and Field of Study to a Critical Review of the ‘Country of Football’ from the 1970s to the 2010s

During the late twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, local players and clubs claimed urban spaces for the practice of ‘futebol de várzea’ (amateur football) in several Brazilian cities, including the state capital of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte. Case studies of these processes reveal new aspects of the Brazilian sports universe. A collection of oral histories from players and clubs illuminate a more diverse array of approaches to the community dimensions of Brazilian football culture when compared to the international image of the nation in scholarship on ‘the country of football’. This study uses sources and methods from oral history innovations as it developed in Brazil as well as contextualizing the introduction and evolution of football studies in the country from the 1970s when the field was not recognized by academia to the contemporary period when research on the topic has produced significant qualitative and quantitative studies recognized by scholars in many disciplines.

The status of traditional healing in the Limpopo province of South Africa

Traditional healing and the use of traditional medicines were historically banned by the South African apartheid government. The dawn of democracy saw a change in the laws, which gave freedom to the traditional African practices. Nevertheless, many South Africans are still divided between Western- and traditional African philosophies. This qualitative study, therefore, employed the hermeneutic phenomenological method to investigate the status of traditional healing in the Limpopo province of South Africa. Data collection was done through interviews, and data were analysed thematically. The results suggest that the work done by traditional healers remains marginalised and undermined despite them contributing to the country’s healthcare system. Traditional healers remain unregulated and often left to work on their own under difficult conditions. It is recommended that government play an active role in ensuring that healers are formally incorporated into the country’s healthcare system, which will benefit both the healers and the communities they serve. Contribution: The study investigates the current status of traditional healing in South Africa and highlights that despite having laws that support traditional healing in the country, the practice remains marginalised and healers are working on their own and not within the country’s healthcare system as it is supposed to be. The study is linked to the scope of the journal because it investigates a topic that borders on oral history and indigenous religious practices of South Africans.