=========================================================================
Date:         Mon, 3 Feb 2003 10:01:06 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Linda Shopes 
Subject:      Opening Statement from Linda Shopes
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Greetings, and welcome to this historymatters forum on oral history.  I
look forward to hearing what you have to say over the next few weeks,
and talking with you about it.  I am also curious about electronic
conversations =96 what works, what makes for a good conversation =96 so
I=92ll be thinking about that, too, as we carry on our discussion.

Let me begin by saying that oral history is a maddeningly imprecise
term.  It refers to both the process of conducting an interview and the
product that results from it.  The former opens up questions of
method; the latter, issues of interpretation.  I hope we=92ll consider both
here.

In terms of method:  while some use the term "oral history" to mean
any oral communication about the past - from the highly formulaic
accounts of community tradition-bearers to informal conversations
about "the old days" around the holiday table - for historians the term
generally means a self-conscious and disciplined inquiry, a structured
exchange between an interviewer, who has certain questions about
the past, and an interviewee, or narrator, who has had certain
experiences with {or in} that past {say, the civil rights movement or the
Reagan presidency or immigration to the United States} and whom
the interviewer thinks has something of value to say in response to
these questions.

It seems like a simple enough process, and in some ways it is =96 what
could be more natural than talking with another person about a
subject of mutual interest?  But there=92s a lot more to conducting an
interview than simply turning on the tape recorder and asking the
narrator to "tell me about your life."   If that question doesn=92t result i=
n
blank stares or the puzzled rejoinder, "Well, what do you want to
know?",  it will likely produce meandering, scattered reminiscences
that don=92t add up to much.  Doing an oral history interview, in other
words, requires careful preparation, skillful questioning, and attentive
follow up.  What kind of preparation can you do to help ensure a good
interview?  What=92s a good interview anyway?  How do you cultivate
rapport with a narrator and stimulate extensive recall?  What do you do
after an interview to bring closure to the exchange and ensure its
usefulness?  These are some the questions we can discuss here.

And what about the second sense of the term "oral history," the
product that=92s produced?  Insofar as an interview is a conversation for
the record, it=92s a process that results in the creation of a source, a
source that =96 like all sources =96 needs to be interpreted with the
historian=92s critical skill.   How do we judge the reliability of a narrato=
r=92s
account of the past?  How do we assess its accuracy?    How can we
trust an individual=92s memory?  What happens when narrators=92
accounts differ, or they don=92t jibe with the written record?

Yet an interview is also a unique source:  it=92s created by two people in
dialogue with one another, the narrator=92s questions eliciting certain
answers, which then result in more =96 perhaps unexpected =96
questions, and on and on.  The mindset or frame of reference each
party brings to the exchange, what each considers of historical
significance, thus shapes or underlies the substance of what is said.
Indeed, in some ways an interview is about the narrator and
interviewer talking across their differences, trying to find common
ground, trying to understand each other.  It=92s also shaped by who the
narrator and interviewer are, their social identities and their
relationship outside the framework of the interview.  Thus frequently
there are differences in the ways women and men tell their stories in
an interview; and differences in the kind of stories a male or female
interviewer may elicit from a given narrator; or in what a person will tell
a family member or an outsider.

An interview is also a conversation in the present about the past.  An
interviewer=92s questions are inevitably shaped by their current interests;
a narrator=92s response by the perspective gained since the events
under discussion took place.  Thus, an elderly veteran=92s war stories
may be rendered as the greatest adventure of his life; or as a
cautionary tale about the evils of war; or in any number of other ways.

In these and other ways, then, I=92d suggest that an oral history interview
is a highly subjective source; and it=92s our job, as students, teachers,
and scholars, to decode this subjectivity, if you will, to not take an
interview at face value but subject it to critical scrutiny.   An interview =
is
not a simple fact-finding mission =96 a simple exercise in finding out
what the old days were like; an interview is a highly crafted story, as a
narrator puts experience into works, compressing years of living into a
few minutes or hours of talk, making sense of their experience in
crafted, creative, meaningful =96 if not always narrowly "accurate" =96
ways.   My own formulaic way of making sense of an interview is to
ask:  who is talking to whom about what, for what purpose, and under
what circumstance.  I=92ve expanded upon these ideas in my essay
"Making Sense of Oral History," available at the historymatters website
at http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/.  I hope we can talk about
some of these interpretive questions in relation to your specific
projects and interviews.

One final thought before turning over the forum to you:  Oral history is a
good way to get out of the classroom or the library and involved in what
is called public history.   Insofar as an interview is a conversation
about the past between a student of history and someone for whom
"history" is lived experience and not an academic study, it is inherently
public.   That conversation can open outward, in a publication,
dramatic production, community forum, website, or any of the other
creative ways historians in classrooms and communities are using
oral history to transform academic inquiry and private exchanges into
public discussions about the content, meaning, and value of the past.
Of course that process raises all sorts of questions too:   What stories
are made public and who gets to tell them?  What happens when a
narrator=92s view of the past differs from the historian=92s?  How can we
keep a conversation going, after the interview has been done, the
website=92s been developed, the book written?

I=92ll stop here =96 now it=92s your turn.

=96Linda Shopes

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Wed, 5 Feb 2003 12:19:54 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Eric Chase 
Subject:      Re: Opening Statement from Linda Shopes
In-Reply-To:  
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Hey all,

Hopefully to get some dialog started in the midst of our busy lives...

I interviewed a woman who was born and raised in a timber camp in Western Washington in the late teens and early twenties.  She remembers the Wobblies and thought her father was one, though she doesn't recall her father ever outright saying as much.  Political and labor discussions were "men's talk" and it was only later she realized that her father was either a member or at least a sympathizer.  Some of her information was a bit different from my own research.  Her dates were a bit conflicting and she didn't remember some events that I would consider significant.  I don't think that this detracted from the interview in the slightest.  I feel that after 80 or 90 years, she had an incredible memory and filled in details that you would never find in history books.  Did anyone know that these wobblies helped build things (like porches, toys, fences...) for nearby families while holding down the picket lines?

The desrepencies in ideas and opinions of the day is also a bit problematic.  What I mean by this is that she didn't recall hearing about the Centralia Massacre until decades later.  Is this because in her community women were not included in political discussion or was it because she was just to young to be included?  Wa she just uninterested at the time?  Or had she forgot she had known?  The idea that anyone remotely involved with the IWW knew what was going on only a few miles away seems highly probable.  Even if we were to conduct interviews today for a hypothetical future history project; lets say the possible war with Iraq, we would find all sort of different perceptions about what is real and what is not real.  We will find those who don't know where Iraq is on the globe and those who can follow the rise of power of Saddam.  I've unfortunately have come across students who say we should bomb Iraq because they bombed the World Trade Centers, they are communists and that they have threatened to use nuclear weapons on us.

Oral histories add life and detail, sometimes precise and sometimes merely examples of our own humanity, well informed, oblivious, insightful and petty.

Eric Chase

South Puget Sound Community College





---------------------------------
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Hey all,
Hopefully to get some dialog started in the midst of our busy lives...
I interviewed a woman who was born and raised in a timber camp in Western Washington in the late teens and early twenties.  She remembers the Wobblies and thought her father was one, though she doesn't recall her father ever outright saying as much.  Political and labor discussions were "men's talk" and it was only later she realized that her father was either a member or at least a sympathizer.  Some of her information was a bit different from my own research.  Her dates were a bit conflicting and she didn't remember some events that I would consider significant.  I don't think that this detracted from the interview in the slightest.  I feel that after 80 or 90 years, she had an incredible memory and filled in details that you would never find in history books.  Did anyone know that these wobblies helped build things (like porches, toys, fences...) for nearby families while holding down the picket lines?
The desrepencies in ideas and opinions of the day is also a bit problematic.  What I mean by this is that she didn't recall hearing about the Centralia Massacre until decades later.  Is this because in her community women were not included in political discussion or was it because she was just to young to be included?  Wa she just uninterested at the time?  Or had she forgot she had known?  The idea that anyone remotely involved with the IWW knew what was going on only a few miles away seems highly probable.  Even if we were to conduct interviews today for a hypothetical future history project; lets say the possible war with Iraq, we would find all sort of different perceptions about what is real and what is not real.  We will find those who don't know where Iraq is on the globe and those who can follow the rise of power of Saddam.  I've unfortunately have come across students who say we should bomb Iraq because they bombed the World Trade Centers, they are communists and that they have threatened to use nuclear weapons on us.  
Oral histories add life and detail, sometimes precise and sometimes merely examples of our own humanity, well informed, oblivious, insightful and petty.
Eric Chase
South Puget Sound Community College
  

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Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now
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=========================================================================
Date:         Wed, 5 Feb 2003 13:09:33 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Meg Woods 
Subject:      Re: Opening Statement from Linda Shopes
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Disposition: inline

Alessandro Portelli has done a lot of research in Hazard County, Kentucky, =
(and in Italy) and finds the same phenomena you describe--an emphasis in =
the oral histories on events historians don't know about and an absence of =
information about events historians consider crucial.  His book The Battle =
of Valle Giulia makes a compelling case about why.  For example, about =
time, he writes that conventional history breaks it into events whereas =
someone living it would place all of the events on a continuum.  About =
social perceptions he would argue that we understand "the law" as X (a =
just sytem of order, say), but a Wobbly might understand the law as the =
sheriff with the gun.  Historians tend to think people act as ideologues, =
when maybe they are just fighting to save their families and livelihoods.  =
The emphasis dramatically changes the interpretation.  Etc.

Meg Woods

Columbia Basin College


>>> erricco64@YAHOO.COM 02/05/03 12:19PM >>>

Hey all,

Hopefully to get some dialog started in the midst of our busy lives...

I interviewed a woman who was born and raised in a timber camp in Western =
Washington in the late teens and early twenties.  She remembers the =
Wobblies and thought her father was one, though she doesn't recall her =
father ever outright saying as much.  Political and labor discussions were =
"men's talk" and it was only later she realized that her father was either =
a member or at least a sympathizer.  Some of her information was a bit =
different from my own research.  Her dates were a bit conflicting and she =
didn't remember some events that I would consider significant.  I don't =
think that this detracted from the interview in the slightest.  I feel =
that after 80 or 90 years, she had an incredible memory and filled in =
details that you would never find in history books.  Did anyone know that =
these wobblies helped build things (like porches, toys, fences...) for =
nearby families while holding down the picket lines?

The desrepencies in ideas and opinions of the day is also a bit problematic=
.  What I mean by this is that she didn't recall hearing about the =
Centralia Massacre until decades later.  Is this because in her community =
women were not included in political discussion or was it because she was =
just to young to be included?  Wa she just uninterested at the time?  Or =
had she forgot she had known?  The idea that anyone remotely involved with =
the IWW knew what was going on only a few miles away seems highly =
probable.  Even if we were to conduct interviews today for a hypothetical =
future history project; lets say the possible war with Iraq, we would find =
all sort of different perceptions about what is real and what is not real. =
 We will find those who don't know where Iraq is on the globe and those =
who can follow the rise of power of Saddam.  I've unfortunately have come =
across students who say we should bomb Iraq because they bombed the World =
Trade Centers, they are communists and that they have threatened to use =
nuclear weapons on us.

Oral histories add life and detail, sometimes precise and sometimes merely =
examples of our own humanity, well informed, oblivious, insightful and =
petty.

Eric Chase

South Puget Sound Community College





---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at =
http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. =
History.

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 6 Feb 2003 10:04:18 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "Noonan, Ellen" 
Subject:      Please Resend your Messages
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Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

Hello Oral History Forum Participants,

The mail server computer that keeps this forum functioning went down last
night and just now came back up. It seems that about twelve hours worth of
messages were lost, so if you posted any messages to the group since 8:00 pm
last (Wednesday) night, please resend them.

Many thanks,

Ellen
--
Ellen Noonan
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue, Room 7301.11
New York, NY  10016
enoonan@gc.cuny.edu
http://www.ashp.cuny.edu

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 6 Feb 2003 11:35:25 -0500
Reply-To:     cpitton@ae21.org
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Charity Pitton 
Subject:      Tips for students
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Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

I teach an integrated high school course that combines history and
English, and try to have my students conduct some oral history
interviews - with a WWII vet, with someone who grew up sharecropping,
etc. Some of their results have been great, some have been pretty dry.
I'm sure a portion of this is just due to who they've been able to find
to interview (when they're required to find someone). But I know that
part of it is that they aren't really sure what to be doing.

I have no training in oral history, but I would suppose there is a vast
body of knowledge out there among the recipients of this listserv. What
tips would you give my students? What are the basics they should know or
be able to do?

On a related issue: Are there ethical issues that make it wrong for
untrained students to conduct this kind of interview? I would assume
not, but... I know in archaeology students would need basic knowledge
before heading out to do field research.

Ms. Shopes brought up an interesting point I will be interested to use
with my students: How are your perceptions and presumptions coloring
what happens/happened in the interview? The next step of this: How,
then, are your perceptions and presumptions affecting our record of
"what happened" and thus in effect creating history? An interesting
point to perhaps help them to remember to read information critically,
and to recall that there are numerous sides to every story, even in
history.

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 6 Feb 2003 14:16:31 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Cynthia Lee Patterson 
Subject:      Re: Tips for students
Comments: To: cpitton@ae21.org
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Charity,

At New Century College, our first year students participate in a year-long project called "Discovery: Reading a Life," that includes an oral history
interview. Students enroll in four six week long, eight-credit courses, interdisciplinary and integrative in nature, to satisfy most of their general
education requirements at the university. I'm including a link to the URL for the online syllabus for the first course in the series, "The Community of
Learners." The site includes a project description, writing prompts, etc.:

http://classweb.gmu.edu/nclc110/f02/assignments-02.html

New Century College is a small college-within-a-college at George Mason University organized around a learning community environment that promotes
student centered, discovery based learning, collaborative teaching, a competency-based curriculum, and a heavy focus on experiential learning
opportunities. Since this project is part of the first year curriculum, I think you might find the online materials useful for thinking about the kinds
of materials you might want to provide to your high school students. Best of luck with your course! cp

Charity Pitton wrote:

> I teach an integrated high school course that combines history and
> English, and try to have my students conduct some oral history
> interviews - with a WWII vet, with someone who grew up sharecropping,
> etc. Some of their results have been great, some have been pretty dry.
> I'm sure a portion of this is just due to who they've been able to find
> to interview (when they're required to find someone). But I know that
> part of it is that they aren't really sure what to be doing.
>
> I have no training in oral history, but I would suppose there is a vast
> body of knowledge out there among the recipients of this listserv. What
> tips would you give my students? What are the basics they should know or
> be able to do?
>
> On a related issue: Are there ethical issues that make it wrong for
> untrained students to conduct this kind of interview? I would assume
> not, but... I know in archaeology students would need basic knowledge
> before heading out to do field research.
>
> Ms. Shopes brought up an interesting point I will be interested to use
> with my students: How are your perceptions and presumptions coloring
> what happens/happened in the interview? The next step of this: How,
> then, are your perceptions and presumptions affecting our record of
> "what happened" and thus in effect creating history? An interesting
> point to perhaps help them to remember to read information critically,
> and to recall that there are numerous sides to every story, even in
> history.
>
> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

--
Cynthia Patterson
Doctoral Candidate in Cultural Studies
Internship Coordinator/Instructor/Academic Advisor
New Century College/English Department
MSN 5D3, George Mason University
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA  22030-4444
703-993-4518
http://culturalstudies.gmu.edu
http://mason.gmu.edu/~cpatter3

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 6 Feb 2003 14:46:47 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "Matthew S. Young" 
Organization: Marietta College
Subject:      Re: Opening Statement from Linda Shopes
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hello all--

I found Meg and Eric's initial postings quite stimulating, because they shed
light on a problem many of my students have with a "family history" project
I assign in my Modern US survey.  The project requires students to interview
a family member about a particular event/time period (eg growing up in the
Depression), and then place that experience in a national context.  I find
that students (like some successful professional historians) will try to
bend the oral histories to fit an archetypical experience (or even a range
of such experiences) rather than handle the rather messy fact that there are
as many histories as there are participants (direct and indirect).  I think
it raises some really important questions regarding the way historians
(students and professionals alike) view their task.

I was wondering if listmembers could provide other work along the line of
Alessandro Portelli's that deal with the various ways people perceive time,
change, causality.

Matt Young

Marietta College
----- Original Message -----
From: "Meg Woods" 
To: 
Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 4:09 PM
Subject: Re: Opening Statement from Linda Shopes


> Alessandro Portelli has done a lot of research in Hazard County, Kentucky,
(and in Italy) and finds the same phenomena you describe--an emphasis in the
oral histories on events historians don't know about and an absence of
information about events historians consider crucial.  His book The Battle
of Valle Giulia makes a compelling case about why.  For example, about time,
he writes that conventional history breaks it into events whereas someone
living it would place all of the events on a continuum.  About social
perceptions he would argue that we understand "the law" as X (a just sytem
of order, say), but a Wobbly might understand the law as the sheriff with
the gun.  Historians tend to think people act as ideologues, when maybe they
are just fighting to save their families and livelihoods.  The emphasis
dramatically changes the interpretation.  Etc.
>
> Meg Woods
>
> Columbia Basin College
>
>
> >>> erricco64@YAHOO.COM 02/05/03 12:19PM >>>
>
> Hey all,
>
> Hopefully to get some dialog started in the midst of our busy lives...
>
> I interviewed a woman who was born and raised in a timber camp in Western
Washington in the late teens and early twenties.  She remembers the Wobblies
and thought her father was one, though she doesn't recall her father ever
outright saying as much.  Political and labor discussions were "men's talk"
and it was only later she realized that her father was either a member or at
least a sympathizer.  Some of her information was a bit different from my
own research.  Her dates were a bit conflicting and she didn't remember some
events that I would consider significant.  I don't think that this detracted
from the interview in the slightest.  I feel that after 80 or 90 years, she
had an incredible memory and filled in details that you would never find in
history books.  Did anyone know that these wobblies helped build things
(like porches, toys, fences...) for nearby families while holding down the
picket lines?
>
> The desrepencies in ideas and opinions of the day is also a bit
problematic.  What I mean by this is that she didn't recall hearing about
the Centralia Massacre until decades later.  Is this because in her
community women were not included in political discussion or was it because
she was just to young to be included?  Wa she just uninterested at the time?
Or had she forgot she had known?  The idea that anyone remotely involved
with the IWW knew what was going on only a few miles away seems highly
probable.  Even if we were to conduct interviews today for a hypothetical
future history project; lets say the possible war with Iraq, we would find
all sort of different perceptions about what is real and what is not real.
We will find those who don't know where Iraq is on the globe and those who
can follow the rise of power of Saddam.  I've unfortunately have come across
students who say we should bomb Iraq because they bombed the World Trade
Centers, they are communists and that they have threatened to use nuclear
weapons on us.
>
> Oral histories add life and detail, sometimes precise and sometimes merely
examples of our own humanity, well informed, oblivious, insightful and
petty.
>
> Eric Chase
>
> South Puget Sound Community College
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now
>
> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
>
> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 6 Feb 2003 15:30:47 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Roy Rosenzweig 
Subject:      Re: Opening Statement from Linda Shopes
In-Reply-To:  <00d701c2ce18$7c7e8ac0$1306f4ce@marietta.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
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I have tried to engage this problem directly in my survey course by
asking students to relate their interview to a generalization in a
historical work and talk about whether it confirms, challenges, or
modifies that generalization. I find that this sometimes helps to focus
them and it also helps with what i find one of the hardest problems in
oral history assignments--how to grade them. I would be interested in
other thoughts on the grading issue.
Roy
On Thursday, February 6, 2003, at 02:46 PM, Matthew S. Young wrote:

> Hello all--
>
> I found Meg and Eric's initial postings quite stimulating, because
> they shed
> light on a problem many of my students have with a "family history"
> project
> I assign in my Modern US survey.  The project requires students to
> interview
> a family member about a particular event/time period (eg growing up in
> the
> Depression), and then place that experience in a national context.  I
> find
> that students (like some successful professional historians) will try
> to
> bend the oral histories to fit an archetypical experience (or even a
> range
> of such experiences) rather than handle the rather messy fact that
> there are
> as many histories as there are participants (direct and indirect).  I
> think
> it raises some really important questions regarding the way historians
> (students and professionals alike) view their task.
>
> I was wondering if listmembers could provide other work along the line
> of
> Alessandro Portelli's that deal with the various ways people perceive
> time,
> change, causality.
>
> Matt Young
>
> Marietta College
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Meg Woods" 
> To: 
> Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 4:09 PM
> Subject: Re: Opening Statement from Linda Shopes
>
>
>> Alessandro Portelli has done a lot of research in Hazard County,
>> Kentucky,
> (and in Italy) and finds the same phenomena you describe--an emphasis
> in the
> oral histories on events historians don't know about and an absence of
> information about events historians consider crucial.  His book The
> Battle
> of Valle Giulia makes a compelling case about why.  For example, about
> time,
> he writes that conventional history breaks it into events whereas
> someone
> living it would place all of the events on a continuum.  About social
> perceptions he would argue that we understand "the law" as X (a just
> sytem
> of order, say), but a Wobbly might understand the law as the sheriff
> with
> the gun.  Historians tend to think people act as ideologues, when
> maybe they
> are just fighting to save their families and livelihoods.  The emphasis
> dramatically changes the interpretation.  Etc.
>>
>> Meg Woods
>>
>> Columbia Basin College
>>
>>
>>>>> erricco64@YAHOO.COM 02/05/03 12:19PM >>>
>>
>> Hey all,
>>
>> Hopefully to get some dialog started in the midst of our busy lives...
>>
>> I interviewed a woman who was born and raised in a timber camp in
>> Western
> Washington in the late teens and early twenties.  She remembers the
> Wobblies
> and thought her father was one, though she doesn't recall her father
> ever
> outright saying as much.  Political and labor discussions were "men's
> talk"
> and it was only later she realized that her father was either a member
> or at
> least a sympathizer.  Some of her information was a bit different from
> my
> own research.  Her dates were a bit conflicting and she didn't
> remember some
> events that I would consider significant.  I don't think that this
> detracted
> from the interview in the slightest.  I feel that after 80 or 90
> years, she
> had an incredible memory and filled in details that you would never
> find in
> history books.  Did anyone know that these wobblies helped build things
> (like porches, toys, fences...) for nearby families while holding down
> the
> picket lines?
>>
>> The desrepencies in ideas and opinions of the day is also a bit
> problematic.  What I mean by this is that she didn't recall hearing
> about
> the Centralia Massacre until decades later.  Is this because in her
> community women were not included in political discussion or was it
> because
> she was just to young to be included?  Wa she just uninterested at the
> time?
> Or had she forgot she had known?  The idea that anyone remotely
> involved
> with the IWW knew what was going on only a few miles away seems highly
> probable.  Even if we were to conduct interviews today for a
> hypothetical
> future history project; lets say the possible war with Iraq, we would
> find
> all sort of different perceptions about what is real and what is not
> real.
> We will find those who don't know where Iraq is on the globe and those
> who
> can follow the rise of power of Saddam.  I've unfortunately have come
> across
> students who say we should bomb Iraq because they bombed the World
> Trade
> Centers, they are communists and that they have threatened to use
> nuclear
> weapons on us.
>>
>> Oral histories add life and detail, sometimes precise and sometimes
>> merely
> examples of our own humanity, well informed, oblivious, insightful and
> petty.
>>
>> Eric Chase
>>
>> South Puget Sound Community College
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------
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>>
>> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site
>> at
> http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S.
> History.
>>
>> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site
>> at
> http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S.
> History.
>
> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site
> at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S.
> History.
>

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 6 Feb 2003 17:34:44 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "Walker, Melissa A." 
Subject:      Re: Opening Statement from Linda Shopes
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=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 6 Feb 2003 20:11:20 EST
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Aurora Levins Morales 
Subject:      Re: Tips for students
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Hi--
    I was lead historian for the Oakland Museum of California's Latino=20
History Project, which trained highschool students to conduct oral histories=
=20
with Latino elders, do additional research and then create an exhibit,=20
educational posters and a website (currently being updated).  We're finishin=
g=20
up the case study of the three year project, but it has a detailed=20
curriculum.  I found that students usually needed some help with the=20
interviews, but we spent a lot of time workshopping the various kinds of=20
problems that could come up, uses of open ended and closed questions, how to=
=20
guide the flow of the conversation and elicit stories, and also how to keep=20
the interview subject on track without being rude.  They did a lot of=20
practice before going into the field, and we debriefed together after each=20
interview.  Myself or another historian always accompanied them.  In the=20
practice interview we gave them a sheet with a few scraps of information=20
about the subject, had several of them do the interview, and then critiqued=20
it as a group.  That helped a lot.=20
We talked about how to handle stories that suddenly become very=20
emotional--when peopel share very painful or intense events in their lives,=20
or at the other end, people who want to hold forth to young people about the=
=20
lessons of their lives, but have a hard time telling any story at all.  I=20
emphasized that an oral history is in some ways a very  intimate conversatio=
n=20
and that they needed to find ways to build connection with the subject, to=20
overcome their shyness enough to show interest and probe for details.  I als=
o=20
taught them to begin with grandparents and parents, dates and places of=20
birth, marriage, migration and death, and occupations, as relatively=20
straightforward factual items to warm up with and be sure they were done wit=
h=20
each one before moving on to the next.  I also had them always ask about=20
childhood in detail.   Informants' own sense of what is most significant=20
about their story may not match ours.  We spoke with one man who had founded=
=20
a Latino soccer league in the 1950s.  But he was also an eye witness to the=20
Mexican Revolution, joined a circus at ten, and worked as a migrant worker i=
n=20
California in the 1920s and 30s.  We only found this out by being systematic=
=20
and going through his parents' life stories.  Another man had been a railroa=
d=20
worker.  His wife mentioned something about "that was before the union came=20
in."  He had not thought it worth mentioning until we asked, that he was the=
=20
man responsible for unionizing the Southern Pacific yard.  What he was most=20
proud of was the fact that his children had all gotten educations.  That he=20
had exposed and ended a system of extortion and kickbacks that required=20
Mexican railroad workers to pay inflated prices for rotten food, didn't loom=
=20
anywhere near as large to him.  But for the students it was a critical piece=
=20
of historical information.  So I'd say practice a lot, be systematic with=20
questions and work on building rapport.  If you send me an address I'll let=20
you know when the case study becomes available.   Aurora Levins Morales
****************************************************************************=
**

***********
Praise for  Remedios: Stories of Earth and Iron from the History of=20
Puertorrique=F1as=20
by Aurora Levins Morales, South End Press 2001

"Captivating language and enticing cadence are characteristics of the =20
enchanting prose Levins Morales employs in this gathering of uniquely=20
realized vignettes...Exciting melange of stories ultimately affirming the=20
empowerment of women."   Booklist

"There is no other book like Remedios.  It is history, anthropology, poetry,=
=20
and myth; it is a song and a prayer. Aurora Levins Morales is a Jewish Latin=
a=20
curandera who embraces diverse legacies with passion and eloquence. In=20
stories so beautifully told they soar off the page...she offers us remedies=20
that heal our bodies and souls and feed our spirits of our many forgotten=20
ancestors." Ruth Behar, author of The Vulnerable Observer

And for Telling To Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios by the Latina Feminist=20
Group (Duke, 2001)

"Telling to Live may be one of the most important books published in the las=
t=20
few decades. Latinas collectively have not had a book like this before that=20
features so many different backgrounds and cultures...The inclusion of all=20
these mix-and-match  identifications is what makes this book required readin=
g=20
in women's studies classes all across the globe." Jocelyn Climent, in Bust

Coming soon!  Shema: Writings on Love and War is an original and probing=20
exploration of integrity and betrayal, violence and reconciliation,=20
sexuality, masculinity, shame and power, from the global to the intimately=20
personal, as she weaves together war in the Middle East with the sudden=20
disintegration of her marriage as the result of her husband's midlife crisis=
=20
affair with a much younger woman. Spoken word CD and book. CD available now=20
at RemediosCenter@aol.com

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 6 Feb 2003 21:27:59 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "Dr. Frank L. Frable Jr." 
Organization: Home Account
Subject:      Re: Opening Statement from Linda Shopes
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hi Linda,
     Your web site flashed on my screen courtesy of my daughter.  My initial
impression was here is a site primarily for all those interested in history.
It appears now that the responses are from history professors, high school
history and English teachers.  Could this be your target audience?  It is
worthwhile to read of the experiences these teachers have experienced.  For
one from the "boonies" struggling to write his own family history and
autobiography, it would be nice to hear commentary from those doing a
similar project.  Trying to avoid the vagaries of seventy five years of
memories along with revisionism that constantly creep in because of wishful
thinking challenges one in this twilight endeavor.  Fortunately,  sibs,
older and younger,  help with their oral rendition of the family history.
For as many sibs that exist, there are that many variations of the "history
of the same event.  I hope there will be responses from persons undertaking
this similar family history project.  Frank l. Frable
----- Original Message -----
From: Linda Shopes 
To: 
Sent: Monday, February 03, 2003 10:01 AM
Subject: Opening Statement from Linda Shopes


> Greetings, and welcome to this historymatters forum on oral history.  I
> look forward to hearing what you have to say over the next few weeks,
> and talking with you about it.  I am also curious about electronic
> conversations - what works, what makes for a good conversation - so
> I'll be thinking about that, too, as we carry on our discussion.
>
> Let me begin by saying that oral history is a maddeningly imprecise
> term.  It refers to both the process of conducting an interview and the
> product that results from it.  The former opens up questions of
> method; the latter, issues of interpretation.  I hope we'll consider both
> here.
>
> In terms of method:  while some use the term "oral history" to mean
> any oral communication about the past - from the highly formulaic
> accounts of community tradition-bearers to informal conversations
> about "the old days" around the holiday table - for historians the term
> generally means a self-conscious and disciplined inquiry, a structured
> exchange between an interviewer, who has certain questions about
> the past, and an interviewee, or narrator, who has had certain
> experiences with {or in} that past {say, the civil rights movement or the
> Reagan presidency or immigration to the United States} and whom
> the interviewer thinks has something of value to say in response to
> these questions.
>
> It seems like a simple enough process, and in some ways it is - what
> could be more natural than talking with another person about a
> subject of mutual interest?  But there's a lot more to conducting an
> interview than simply turning on the tape recorder and asking the
> narrator to "tell me about your life."   If that question doesn't result
in
> blank stares or the puzzled rejoinder, "Well, what do you want to
> know?",  it will likely produce meandering, scattered reminiscences
> that don't add up to much.  Doing an oral history interview, in other
> words, requires careful preparation, skillful questioning, and attentive
> follow up.  What kind of preparation can you do to help ensure a good
> interview?  What's a good interview anyway?  How do you cultivate
> rapport with a narrator and stimulate extensive recall?  What do you do
> after an interview to bring closure to the exchange and ensure its
> usefulness?  These are some the questions we can discuss here.
>
> And what about the second sense of the term "oral history," the
> product that's produced?  Insofar as an interview is a conversation for
> the record, it's a process that results in the creation of a source, a
> source that - like all sources - needs to be interpreted with the
> historian's critical skill.   How do we judge the reliability of a
narrator's
> account of the past?  How do we assess its accuracy?    How can we
> trust an individual's memory?  What happens when narrators'
> accounts differ, or they don't jibe with the written record?
>
> Yet an interview is also a unique source:  it's created by two people in
> dialogue with one another, the narrator's questions eliciting certain
> answers, which then result in more - perhaps unexpected -
> questions, and on and on.  The mindset or frame of reference each
> party brings to the exchange, what each considers of historical
> significance, thus shapes or underlies the substance of what is said.
> Indeed, in some ways an interview is about the narrator and
> interviewer talking across their differences, trying to find common
> ground, trying to understand each other.  It's also shaped by who the
> narrator and interviewer are, their social identities and their
> relationship outside the framework of the interview.  Thus frequently
> there are differences in the ways women and men tell their stories in
> an interview; and differences in the kind of stories a male or female
> interviewer may elicit from a given narrator; or in what a person will
tell
> a family member or an outsider.
>
> An interview is also a conversation in the present about the past.  An
> interviewer's questions are inevitably shaped by their current interests;
> a narrator's response by the perspective gained since the events
> under discussion took place.  Thus, an elderly veteran's war stories
> may be rendered as the greatest adventure of his life; or as a
> cautionary tale about the evils of war; or in any number of other ways.
>
> In these and other ways, then, I'd suggest that an oral history interview
> is a highly subjective source; and it's our job, as students, teachers,
> and scholars, to decode this subjectivity, if you will, to not take an
> interview at face value but subject it to critical scrutiny.   An
interview is
> not a simple fact-finding mission - a simple exercise in finding out
> what the old days were like; an interview is a highly crafted story, as a
> narrator puts experience into works, compressing years of living into a
> few minutes or hours of talk, making sense of their experience in
> crafted, creative, meaningful - if not always narrowly "accurate" -
> ways.   My own formulaic way of making sense of an interview is to
> ask:  who is talking to whom about what, for what purpose, and under
> what circumstance.  I've expanded upon these ideas in my essay
> "Making Sense of Oral History," available at the historymatters website
> at http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/.  I hope we can talk about
> some of these interpretive questions in relation to your specific
> projects and interviews.
>
> One final thought before turning over the forum to you:  Oral history is a
> good way to get out of the classroom or the library and involved in what
> is called public history.   Insofar as an interview is a conversation
> about the past between a student of history and someone for whom
> "history" is lived experience and not an academic study, it is inherently
> public.   That conversation can open outward, in a publication,
> dramatic production, community forum, website, or any of the other
> creative ways historians in classrooms and communities are using
> oral history to transform academic inquiry and private exchanges into
> public discussions about the content, meaning, and value of the past.
> Of course that process raises all sorts of questions too:   What stories
> are made public and who gets to tell them?  What happens when a
> narrator's view of the past differs from the historian's?  How can we
> keep a conversation going, after the interview has been done, the
> website's been developed, the book written?
>
> I'll stop here - now it's your turn.
>
> -Linda Shopes
>
> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
>
>

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 6 Feb 2003 21:33:43 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Jennifer Block 
Subject:      Re: Opening Statement from Linda Shopes
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

>I am a Language Arts instructor and I always try to impart to my students that the "truth" can only be ascertained when all perspectives, points of view are compiled.  Obviously we can never fully acheive this but we must make the effort... perhaps "truth" is less important than the educative qualities full perspectives offer.  Oral histories are important, I think, not as matter of confirming dates or facts but as adding to perceptions... Ofcourse, memory is distortive but I'm not sure any more distortive than any one historians allaying of the "facts."  I encourge my students to use interviews in their research as a means of gaining perspective... I, myself am in constant awe of the "pieces of history" I receive from both my youngest and oldest students.
In regards to the woman whose father was a IWW sympathizer or member I was reminded of my own father.  He had been one of the top ten commercial artists in NYC back in the l950's.  He was also an instructor of Marxist Education and active at the original Jefferson School.  I so wish I had asked more questions and gathered more data... but, alas, I only have small pieces of history passed down to me orally... and from these pieces I have knowledge I might never have quite understood so well...
Perhaps this forum will motivate me to gather the many histories my students write each day... Oral history, the difference between qualitative and quantitaive perhaps?
Jennifer Block
Daylight/Twilight HS
Trenton, NJ

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=========================================================================
Date:         Fri, 7 Feb 2003 00:56:25 EST
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Linda Shopes 
Subject:      talking about oral history
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Thanks to Eric Chase and Meg Woods for plunging into this forum on oral
history and to the rapidly expanding group of discussants for picking up on
various discussion threads.  So far, there seems to be a comfortable balance
between interest in the "how to's," the basics, of oral history and the
broader, interpretive issues.  I'd like to keep discussion of both of these
dimensions of oral history on the virtual table, since they are deeply
interconnected - how one conducts an interview, the questions one asks, the
way one asks them, the social and intellectual vantage points from which one
approaches an interview, cannot, after all, be separated from the responses
elicted, the stories told, the perspectives and points of view presented.
Let me try to interject a few summary comments here.

First, as Chase, Matt Young, Aurora Levins Morales, and others suggest, the
categories narrators use to make sense of their personal experiences and the
categories historians use to organize an understanding of the past indeed are
frequently not congruent.  This insight, it seems to me, suggests how oral
history can open up a much broader discussion with students of the nature of
historical knowledge in very concrete ways: the contingency of historians'
explanations, the limitations of a single perspective, the differences
between history as "what happened" and what we say about what happened, the
sheer messiness of historical explanations.  These are tough concepts to wrap
one's mind around in the abstract; confronted with an interview, stacking it
up against a work of scholarship, they begin to click in.

Woods refers to the work of Alessandro Portelli, who indeed is one of the
most thoughtful commentators on the inherently subjective nature of oral
narratives.  In his frequently cited essay, "The Death of Luigi Trastulli"
(in a book with nearly the same title), Portelli makes the important point
that narrators' errors of fact may speak to larger truths, may tell us more
about their mental worlds, than a simple recitation of facts.  Another
thoughtful commentator on this issue is Michael Frisch, especially his A
Shared Authority: Essays on the Craft and Meaning of Oral and Public History
(and see especially his review of Terkel's Hard Times, for an important
discussion of what we might term social memory.)   But several respondants
have also made the very good point that interviews are not only or simply
exercises in subjectivity; they often do fill in historians' pictures of the
past with new information and enriching details.  And, again to refer to
Chase, he reminds us, as he talks about his students' views of Iraq,  of how
misinformed many are about "what happened."  There is, indeed, a great deal
of popular ignorance about the past - and a popular reification of "personal
experience" as the ultimate authority.  So, I think it is important not to
simply adopt an "all points of view are equal" persepctive about oral history
interviews, but to stack up perceptions against known facts, and attempt to
explain why these discrepencies exist.

I also think it is interesting to try to open up these discrepencies within
the context of an itnerview itself, to ask narrators, when their account
doesn't jibe with others - narrators or historians - to explain the
differences.  Not every narrator can rise to these sorts of evaluative
questions, and they need to be asked in a way that is not confrontational or
disrespectful; but it seems to me worth trying to make explicit within an
itnerview the kinds of interpretive questions we might bring to it, to give
narrators a chance to "explain themselves," to comment on their own accounts.

Second, several have asked for practical advice, for tips and resources.  Ms.
Morales gives a good account of her work with high school students.  To
oversimplify, I think there are three stages to a good interview:  careful
preparation, including doing background research on the topic/s at hand and
developing an outline, or game plan, for an interview; skillful questioning,
which is a combination of learned techniques, communications skills, creative
intuition, and practice; and careful follow up, that is,  making something of
the interview - making sense of it, and making it useful to others, whether
by transcribing it to enhance accessability, archiving it, or  presenting it
in some public way.

I'm attaching a list of on-line resources for doing oral history; I developed
it some months ago and some of the links may not be functioning, but some
might find it useful.  My essay, "Making Sense of Oral History," referenced
in my initial posting, also includes a bibliogrpahy of both manuals and more
theoretical work in oral history.  H-Oralhist, the listserv sponsored by the
Oral History Association and affiliated with H-NET, is a wonderful forum for
sharing resources, getting advice, discussing one's work.  In just the last
week there has been a thoughtful discussion of precisely the sort of ethical
question Charity Pitton raises about sending untrained students out to do
interviews.  The disucsison focused on having perhaps well intentioned but
naive and uninformed students do interviews with Holocaust survivors, perhaps
opening up memories that the student is unprepared to handle.  There's no pat
answer here except preparation, practice - and mature judgment on the part of
the teacher.

Finally, Roy asks about grading.  For me the biggest difficulty is the time
involved in actually listening to the tapes my students produce - I think
it's important to listen to the entire tape, and as a result, I don't assign
as many interviews as I would like.  I also assign two grades to each
interview:  one for how well the student has conducted the interview (not how
"good" the narrator is - though how good s/he is is often related to how good
the interviewer is), and one for what the student makes of the interview as a
historical document.

That's all for now - keep the discussion rolling and I'll be back in a couple
of days.  --Linda Shopes

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

--part1_7a.37db432b.2b74a489_alt_boundary
Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Thanks to Eric Chase and Meg Woods for plunging into t=
his forum on oral history and to the rapidly expanding group of discussants=20=
for picking up on various discussion threads.  So far, there seems to b=
e a comfortable balance between interest in the "how to's," the basics, of o=
ral history and the broader, interpretive issues.  I'd like to keep dis=
cussion of both of these dimensions of oral history on the virtual table, si=
nce they are deeply interconnected - how one conducts an interview, the ques=
tions one asks, the way one asks them, the social and intellectual vantage p=
oints from which one approaches an interview, cannot, after all, be separate=
d from the responses elicted, the stories told, the perspectives and points=20=
of view presented.  Let me try to interject a few summary comments here=
.  



First, as Chase, Matt Young, Aurora Levins Morales, and others suggest, the=20=
categories narrators use to make sense of their personal experiences and the=
 categories historians use to organize an understanding of the past indeed a=
re frequently not congruent.  This insight, it seems to me, suggests ho=
w oral history can open up a much broader discussion with students of the na=
ture of historical knowledge in very concrete ways: the contingency of histo=
rians' explanations, the limitations of a single perspective, the difference=
s between history as "what happened" and what we say about what happened, th=
e sheer messiness of historical explanations.  These are tough concepts=
 to wrap one's mind around in the abstract; confronted with an interview, st=
acking it up against a work of scholarship, they begin to click in.



Woods refers to the work of Alessandro Portelli, who indeed is one of the mo=
st thoughtful commentators on the inherently subjective nature of oral narra=
tives.  In his frequently cited essay, "The Death of Luigi Trastulli" (=
in a book with nearly the same title), Portelli makes the important point th=
at narrators' errors of fact may speak to larger truths, may tell us more ab=
out their mental worlds, than a simple recitation of facts.  Another th=
oughtful commentator on this issue is Michael Frisch, especially his A Sh=
ared Authority: Essays on the Craft and Meaning of Oral and Public History (and see especially his review of Terkel's Hard Times, for an impo=
rtant discussion of what we might term social memory.)   But sever=
al respondants have also made the very good point that interviews are not on=
ly or simply exercises in subjectivity; they often do fill in historians' pi=
ctures of the past with new information and enriching details.  And, ag=
ain to refer to Chase, he reminds us, as he talks about his students' views=20=
of Iraq,  of how misinformed many are about "what happened."  Ther=
e is, indeed, a great deal of popular ignorance about the past - and a popul=
ar reification of "personal experience" as the ultimate authority.  So,=
 I think it is important not to simply adopt an "all points of view are equa=
l" persepctive about oral history interviews, but to stack up perceptions ag=
ainst known facts, and attempt to explain why these discrepencies exist.&nbs=
p; 



I also think it is interesting to try to open up these discrepencies within=20=
the context of an itnerview itself, to ask narrators, when their account doe=
sn't jibe with others - narrators or historians - to explain the differences=
.  Not every narrator can rise to these sorts of evaluative questions,=20=
and they need to be asked in a way that is not confrontational or disrespect=
ful; but it seems to me worth trying to make explicit within an itnerview th=
e kinds of interpretive questions we might bring to it, to give narrators a=20=
chance to "explain themselves," to comment on their own accounts.



Second, several have asked for practical advice, for tips and resources.&nbs=
p; Ms. Morales gives a good account of her work with high school students.&n=
bsp; To oversimplify, I think there are three stages to a good interview:&nb=
sp; careful preparation, including doing background research on the topic/s=20=
at hand and developing an outline, or game plan, for an interview; skillful=20=
questioning, which is a combination of learned techniques, communications sk=
ills, creative intuition, and practice; and careful follow up, that is, =
; making something of the interview - making sense of it, and making it usef=
ul to others, whether by transcribing it to enhance accessability, archiving=
 it, or  presenting it in some public way.  



I'm attaching a list of on-line resources for doing oral history; I develope=
d it some months ago and some of the links may not be functioning, but some=20=
might find it useful.  My essay, "Making Sense of Oral History," refere=
nced in my initial posting, also includes a bibliogrpahy of both manuals and=
 more theoretical work in oral history.  H-Oralhist, the listserv spons=
ored by the Oral History Association and affiliated with H-NET, is a wonderf=
ul forum for sharing resources, getting advice, discussing one's work. =
 In just the last week there has been a thoughtful discussion of precisely t=
he sort of ethical question Charity Pitton raises about sending untrained st=
udents out to do interviews.  The disucsison focused on having perhaps=20=
well intentioned but naive and uninformed students do interviews with Holoca=
ust survivors, perhaps opening up memories that the student is unprepared to=
 handle.  There's no pat answer here except preparation, practice - and=
 mature judgment on the part of the teacher. 



Finally, Roy asks about grading.  For me the biggest difficulty is the=20=
time involved in actually listening to the tapes my students produce - I thi=
nk it's important to listen to the entire tape, and as a result, I don't ass=
ign as many interviews as I would like.  I also assign two grades to ea=
ch interview:  one for how well the student has conducted the interview=
 (not how "good" the narrator is - though how good s/he is is often related=20=
to how good the interviewer is), and one for what the student makes of the i=
nterview as a historical document.



That's all for now - keep the discussion rolling and I'll be back in a coupl=
e of days.  --Linda Shopes
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

--part1_7a.37db432b.2b74a489_alt_boundary--

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Date:         Fri, 7 Feb 2003 10:02:32 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "Noonan, Ellen" 
Subject:      link for Linda Shopes' list of resources
Mime-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

Because the forum software will not distribute attachments, I have posted
the list of web-based oral history resources that Linda mentioned at:

http://web.gc.cuny.edu/ashp/ohwebresources.html

Ellen
--
Ellen Noonan
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue, Room 7301.11
New York, NY  10016
enoonan@gc.cuny.edu
http://www.ashp.cuny.edu

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Fri, 7 Feb 2003 13:28:26 -0200
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Donna Sharer 
Subject:      Re: talking about oral history
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

I teach at a neighborhood high school in Philadelphia, PA.  Last year I
included oral history in two class projects.  I learned a few things from
the process.

The first project was about our school.  The school was moved from one
neighborhood to another neighborhood in 1957.  The school at its "old"
location was an all boys, integrated (about 50% African American) high
school.  At its new location, it was a co-ed. nearly 100% European
American high school (there were 6 African American students out of a
student body of about 3300).  (Yes, this is post Brown v. Board).  Most
of our research was a Temple's Urban Archives (thanks to the archivist!).
 We used census data, school board minutes, newspaper articles, school
newspaper / yearbooks, etc.  We were able to interview 13 men who
graduated from the "old" school in the 1950s.  We found there were very
different perceptions of the school and why the school was moved.  We
concluded the school was probably moved because the neighborhood (and
feeder neighborhoods)  of the old school was "changing"  racially /
ethnically and the student body was becoming more diverse.  The school
was  one of the most prominent schools in the city and had powerful
alumni who "made the move" happen.   The African American men who were
interviewed (3) said the decision was based on race.  The European
American who lived neared the school also blamed it on race and politics.
 The European Americans from feeder neighborhoods liked the idea of
moving the school.  One reason is many families who lived in the feeder
neighborhoods were moving to the area of the city where the "new " school
was located.  Anyway... the students  worked in teams.  They asked each
interviewee the same questions (this was required by the administration
because the project was "controversial.")  Students summarized the
interviews.  (I didn't make them  do an actual transcript because of the
time/ lack of equipment.  To be honest, the project was very time
consuming and stressful but in the end, the students, including the
reluctant students, were proud of their accomplishments.)  I learned it
is important for me to listen to the tapes.  Next time I will do it with
each group vs. on my own because they didn't always catch subtle comments
or make connections between questions.   When we put together our final
project, we didn't directly address the findings.  Students agreed the
alumni disagreed and though we came up with our conclusions based on
other documents, we didn't spend enough time thinking through why the
alumni perceived the move differently.

The second project was on the Cold War.  Again, we used Temple Univ.
Urban Archives.  The project included the Cold War in Phila. so students
interviewed family members / neighbors  / teachers about their memories
of the Cold War.  We also found some neat things about our school.  (Our
school has a separate magnet program - my students aren't part of it.
The magnet program received funding in 1963 as part of the post Sputnik
science funding for an aerospace program.)   The project was an attempt
to have multiple perspectives of the Cold War.  Students interviewed
people who had lived in the US and outside the US.  (I had a number of
ESL students in the class.)  We developed a class list of questions.  My
problem with this project is some of the statements made by people were
factually incorrect.   Some of the people who grew up in the US,
especially those who weren't at least 65 or 70, didn't know much about
the Cold War.  (This may be a reflection on history education in the US.)
 In our final project, I cut the inaccurate statements.  I told the
students why but some asked, "well, if this is their experience, why
don't we include it?"

I'd like to hear other pre collegiate teachers' ideas on including oral
history and logistics.  I'm working on a follow-up project on our school
this year.  I'd like to try something with 9th graders about world events
in the 1980s.  (Yes, they were born in 1987 - 1988!)  It is a World
History class.

Donna
Phila., PA

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=========================================================================
Date:         Fri, 7 Feb 2003 15:30:35 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Thomas Murray 
Subject:      High School Oral History

I have done two Oral History Projects over the last three semesters.  My
Drop Out Prevention class on The History of the Vietnam War published
books of Oral History last fall and this fall.  This fall we added an Oral
History video to the work.  I am currently working on an Oral History of
how our school community has changed over the last 40 years or so staying
specifically on lifestyles, diversity, transportation, music and
development (our beaches).

The Vietnam War Oral Histories were an amazing success.  We used email
interviews, class guests and private in depth one on one interviews.  Each
student does one of each type of interview.  We use the Oral History as
the core curriculum and compare what we learn to established historical
perspectives.  I thought the Vietnam war work was hard but am learning it
is far easier than doing Oral History of our community.  The Vietnam work
has a built in focus and a relatively easy to find audience.

The diversity of interviews grows with experience.  We've interviewed the
typical soldiers, Marines, sailors and Air Force veterans but we've added
to that with CIA pilots, Red Cross Donut Dollies, South Vietnamese
soldiers, North Vietnamese high school students during 1971 and even an
SDS campus aggitator.  The variety emphasizes one thing over and over.
War is a horrible thing and we better know what we're doing before we send
our youth off to die.

The exciting thing for me is that my Drop Out Prevention kids have learned
to hate school over the years.  They expect to fail.  This personal Oral
History changes a lot of that for the kids.  They learn the personal side,
frequently with a lot of emotion, and their interest in school and
learning comes back to life.  Their pride when they see their picture and
their name listed as an author is such a special moment.

Best of all we have a breakfast celebration with the whole school in
attendance so each student can present a book to each local veteran and
say those special words, "WELCOME HOME and thanks for everything you did
for our freedom".

I'm currently working on my PhD in Social Science Ed witha dissertation on
Oral History re-engaging At-Risk kids.

Tom Murray

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Sun, 9 Feb 2003 09:33:10 EST
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Linda Shopes 
Subject:      follow up on recent postings
MIME-Version: 1.0
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              boundary="part1_c3.301426e7.2b77c0a6_boundary"

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A few comments on the most recent postings - first, I am enormously impressed
and encouraged by the creative work in oral history being done at the high
school level.  Tom Murray is right in suggesting how doing an interview with
a participant in history can reenergize students.  It connects them with
their community, opens up tough qustions about not only the past but the
present, gives them pride in doing something tangible, visible to others.
Donna Sharer is also right that doing a classroom oral history project is
very labor intensive, not to be undertaken casually.

Donna's idea that students should listen to and evaluate interviews in groups
is a good one, I think; I've always found it useful, when teaching
interviewing technique, to have the class listen to excerpts of existing
interveiws - not necessarily those that are esp. bad or good, just typical
interviews - and critique them.  That brings home the abstractions of
"leading questions, "follow up," etc.

Donna also talks about her class's interviewing project on the Cold War - I'd
be curious to see the list of questions the class developed on this topic.
One of the things I find quite difficult about oral history is bringing broad
historical topics like the Cold War down to the personal level - what sort of
questions does one ask to connect an individual life to the Cold War - or any
generalization - in a meaningful way?  Anyone have any thoughts on this,
examples to post to the list?

Finally there's Donna's comment that her students questioned her cutting
inaccurate statements from the final project on the grounds that "if this is
their experience, why dont' we include it?"  Previous postings have sugge
sted, quite rightly, that "inaccuracies" perhaps speak to larger truths.
Here perhaps the "larger truth" is what I rather facetiously refer to as the
oprah-fication of American culture:  the absolute reification of "personal
experience" above all other forms of knowing.  How have others handled this
problem?  --Linda



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--part1_c3.301426e7.2b77c0a6_boundary
Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

A few comments on the most recent postings - first, I=20=
am enormously impressed and encouraged by the creative work in oral history=20=
being done at the high school level.  Tom Murray is right in suggesting=
 how doing an interview with a participant in history can reenergize student=
s.  It connects them with their community, opens up tough qustions abou=
t not only the past but the present, gives them pride in doing something tan=
gible, visible to others.  Donna Sharer is also right that doing a clas=
sroom oral history project is very labor intensive, not to be undertaken cas=
ually.  



Donna's idea that students should listen to and evaluate interviews in group=
s is a good one, I think; I've always found it useful, when teaching intervi=
ewing technique, to have the class listen to excerpts of existing interveiws=
 - not necessarily those that are esp. bad or good, just typical interviews=20=
- and critique them.  That brings home the abstractions of "leading que=
stions, "follow up," etc.  



Donna also talks about her class's interviewing project on the Cold War - I'=
d be curious to see the list of questions the class developed on this topic.=
  One of the things I find quite difficult about oral history is bringi=
ng broad historical topics like the Cold War down to the personal level - wh=
at sort of questions does one ask to connect an individual life to the Cold=20=
War - or any generalization - in a meaningful way?  Anyone have any tho=
ughts on this, examples to post to the list?



Finally there's Donna's comment that her students questioned her cutting ina=
ccurate statements from the final project on the grounds that "if this is th=
eir experience, why dont' we include it?"  Previous postings have sugge=
sted, quite rightly, that "inaccuracies" perhaps speak to larger truths.&nbs=
p; Here perhaps the "larger truth" is what I rather facetiously refer to as=20=
the oprah-fication of American culture:  the absolute reification of "p=
ersonal experience" above all other forms of knowing.  How have others=20=
handled this problem?  --Linda



 
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

--part1_c3.301426e7.2b77c0a6_boundary--
=========================================================================
Date:         Sun, 9 Feb 2003 20:20:41 -0200
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Donna Sharer 
Subject:      Re: follow up on recent postings
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=--__JNP_000_4e50.0e7d.691e

This message is in MIME format.  Since your mail reader does not understand
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.

----__JNP_000_4e50.0e7d.691e
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I'd like to add to Tom Murry's "plug" for oral history energizing
students.  The high school I teach at has tracking - I teach the students
who aren't selected for honors / rapid / AP / magnet classes.  The
students that were the most enthusiastic on the school project were four
young men who were often disruptive / argumentative / etc.  In the middle
of the project one was placed in a "special" after school program.  So,
ALL students benefit from oral history!

Regarding the Cold War project - these are the questions -

1.  When and where were you born?  Where did you grown up?
2.  What important political events do you remember from your lifetime?
Why were these events important to you?
3.  What important economic events do you remember from your lifetime?
Why were these events important to you?
4.  What important social changes do you remember from your lifetime?
Why were these events important to you?
5.  How would you define the Cold War?
6.  What were you told about the Cold War in school?
7.  Do you think the Cold War affected you?  Why or why not?
8.  Did you learn about other countries while you were in school?  Which
countries?  What did you learn about them?
9.  Do you think how you look at other people or countries has changed
since the Cold War?
10.  How has your life changed since the Cold War?
11.  What do you think we can learn from the Cold War?

I should clarify what I meant by "incorrect" information.  Students
interviewed people who grew up in the US and outside of the US
(Caribbean, Eastern Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and Latin America.
Some of the people  gave incorrect information re: alliances / wars /
dates.  We didn't change anything about their opinion / experiences.  We
also didn't change their definition of the Cold War.  What I found the
most interesting is what they learned in school and lessons from the Cold
War.  This was an opportunity to not only discuss perspectives but also
the term "enemy."  Many people shared their memories of the "evil
empire,"  fear of the Soviets, etc.  Two people were from the former
Soviet Union and they had stories about the "evil" US. (The purpose of
the project was to produce a booklet for teachers to use in teaching
multiple perspectives about the Cold War.  I included many lessons plans
- it is 70 pages.  We also included local history - our school's
connection to the Cold War, articles from local papers on fall out
shelters, political debates, etc.)

I'm enjoying the discussion!

Donna

On Sun, 9 Feb 2003 09:33:10 EST Linda Shopes  writes:
A few comments on the most recent postings - first, I am enormously
impressed and encouraged by the creative work in oral history being done
at the high school level.  Tom Murray is right in suggesting how doing an
interview with a participant in history can reenergize students.  It
connects them with their community, opens up tough qustions about not
only the past but the present, gives them pride in doing something
tangible, visible to others.  Donna Sharer is also right that doing a
classroom oral history project is very labor intensive, not to be
undertaken casually.

Donna's idea that students should listen to and evaluate interviews in
groups is a good one, I think; I've always found it useful, when teaching
interviewing technique, to have the class listen to excerpts of existing
interveiws - not necessarily those that are esp. bad or good, just
typical interviews - and critique them.  That brings home the
abstractions of "leading questions, "follow up," etc.

Donna also talks about her class's interviewing project on the Cold War -
I'd be curious to see the list of questions the class developed on this
topic.  One of the things I find quite difficult about oral history is
bringing broad historical topics like the Cold War down to the personal
level - what sort of questions does one ask to connect an individual life
to the Cold War - or any generalization - in a meaningful way?  Anyone
have any thoughts on this, examples to post to the list?

Finally there's Donna's comment that her students questioned her cutting
inaccurate statements from the final project on the grounds that "if this
is their experience, why dont' we include it?"  Previous postings have
suggested, quite rightly, that "inaccuracies" perhaps speak to larger
truths.  Here perhaps the "larger truth" is what I rather facetiously
refer to as the oprah-fication of American culture:  the absolute
reification of "personal experience" above all other forms of knowing.
How have others handled this problem?  --Linda

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S.
History.

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
----__JNP_000_4e50.0e7d.691e
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable






I'd like to add to Tom Murry's "plug" for oral history energizing=20
students.  The high school I teach at has tracking - I teach the =
students=20
who aren't selected for honors / rapid / AP / magnet classes.  The =
students=20
that were the most enthusiastic on the school project were four young men =
who=20
were often disruptive / argumentative / etc.  In the middle of the =
project=20
one was placed in a "special" after school program.  So, ALL students=
=20
benefit from oral history!
 
Regarding the Cold War project - these are the questions -
 
1.  When and where were you born?  Where did you grown up?
2.  What important political events do you remember from your=20
lifetime?  Why were these events important to you?
3.  What important economic events do you remember from your=20
lifetime?  Why were these events important to you?
4.  What important social changes do you remember from your=20
lifetime?  Why were these events important to you?
5.  How would you define the Cold War?
6.  What were you told about the Cold War in school?
7.  Do you think the Cold War affected you?  Why or why=20
not?
8.  Did you learn about other countries while you were in=20
school?  Which countries?  What did you learn about them?
9.  Do you think how you look at other people or countries has =
changed=20
since the Cold War?
10.  How has your life changed since the Cold War?
11.  What do you think we can learn from the Cold War?
 
I should clarify what I meant by "incorrect" information.  =
Students=20
interviewed people who grew up in the US and outside of the US (Caribbean,=
=20
Eastern Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and Latin America.   Some =
of=20
the people  gave incorrect information re: alliances / wars / dates.&=
nbsp;=20
We didn't change anything about their opinion / experiences.  We also=
=20
didn't change their definition of the Cold War.  What I found the most=
=20
interesting is what they learned in school and lessons from the Cold War.&=
nbsp;=20
This was an opportunity to not only discuss perspectives but also the term=
=20
"enemy."  Many people shared their memories of the "evil empire," =
;=20
fear of the Soviets, etc.  Two people were from the former Soviet =
Union and=20
they had stories about the "evil" US. (The purpose of the project was =
to=20
produce a booklet for teachers to use in teaching multiple perspectives =
about=20
the Cold War.  I included many lessons plans - it is 70 pages.  =
We=20
also included local history - our school's connection to the Cold War, =
articles=20
from local papers on fall out shelters, political debates, etc.)  
 
I'm enjoying the discussion!

Donna
 
On Sun, 9 Feb 2003 09:33:10 EST Linda Shopes <Lshopes@AOL.COM> writes:

  
A few comments on the most recent postings - first, =
I am=20
  enormously impressed and encouraged by the creative work in oral history =
being=20
  done at the high school level.  Tom Murray is right in suggesting =
how=20
  doing an interview with a participant in history can reenergize=20
  students.  It connects them with their community, opens up tough =
qustions=20
  about not only the past but the present, gives them pride in doing =
something=20
  tangible, visible to others.  Donna Sharer is also right that doing =
a=20
  classroom oral history project is very labor intensive, not to be =
undertaken=20
  casually.  

Donna's idea that students should listen to and=20
  evaluate interviews in groups is a good one, I think; I've always found =
it=20
  useful, when teaching interviewing technique, to have the class listen to=
=20
  excerpts of existing interveiws - not necessarily those that are esp. bad=
 or=20
  good, just typical interviews - and critique them.  That brings home=
 the=20
  abstractions of "leading questions, "follow up," etc.  

Donna=
 also=20
  talks about her class's interviewing project on the Cold War - I'd be =
curious=20
  to see the list of questions the class developed on this topic.  One=
 of=20
  the things I find quite difficult about oral history is bringing broad=20
  historical topics like the Cold War down to the personal level - what =
sort of=20
  questions does one ask to connect an individual life to the Cold War - or=
 any=20
  generalization - in a meaningful way?  Anyone have any thoughts on =
this,=20
  examples to post to the list?

Finally there's Donna's comment that=
 her=20
  students questioned her cutting inaccurate statements from the final =
project=20
  on the grounds that "if this is their experience, why dont' we include=20
  it?"  Previous postings have suggested, quite rightly, that=20
  "inaccuracies" perhaps speak to larger truths.  Here perhaps the "=
larger=20
  truth" is what I rather facetiously refer to as the oprah-fication of =
American=20
  culture:  the absolute reification of "personal experience" above =
all=20
  other forms of knowing.  How have others handled this problem? =
=20
  --Linda

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please =
visit=20
  our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for =
teaching=20
  U.S. History. 
  
 
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

----__JNP_000_4e50.0e7d.691e--
=========================================================================
Date:         Sun, 9 Feb 2003 22:10:56 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Pete Haro 
Subject:      Re: follow up on recent postings
Mime-version: 1.0
Content-type: multipart/alternative;
              boundary="MS_Mac_OE_3127673457_205232_MIME_Part"

> THIS MESSAGE IS IN MIME FORMAT. Since your mail reader does not understand
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.

--MS_Mac_OE_3127673457_205232_MIME_Part
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

Dear Forum: In response to Linda's posting, I too would like to see or have
suggestions in developing some kind of "how to" list for getting students to
do more oral history assignments. How would such an assignment be graded?
What parameters would have to be set up and enforced? Practical questions
such as this need to be addressed. Pete Haro.

----------
From: Linda Shopes 
To: ORALHISTORYFORUM@ASHP.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: follow up on recent postings
Date: Sun, Feb 9, 2003, 6:33 AM


A few comments on the most recent postings - first, I am enormously
impressed and encouraged by the creative work in oral history being done at
the high school level.  Tom Murray is right in suggesting how doing an
interview with a participant in history can reenergize students.  It
connects them with their community, opens up tough qustions about not only
the past but the present, gives them pride in doing something tangible,
visible to others.  Donna Sharer is also right that doing a classroom oral
history project is very labor intensive, not to be undertaken casually.

Donna's idea that students should listen to and evaluate interviews in
groups is a good one, I think; I've always found it useful, when teaching
interviewing technique, to have the class listen to excerpts of existing
interveiws - not necessarily those that are esp. bad or good, just typical
interviews - and critique them.  That brings home the abstractions of
"leading questions, "follow up," etc.

Donna also talks about her class's interviewing project on the Cold War -
I'd be curious to see the list of questions the class developed on this
topic.  One of the things I find quite difficult about oral history is
bringing broad historical topics like the Cold War down to the personal
level - what sort of questions does one ask to connect an individual life to
the Cold War - or any generalization - in a meaningful way?  Anyone have any
thoughts on this, examples to post to the list?

Finally there's Donna's comment that her students questioned her cutting
inaccurate statements from the final project on the grounds that "if this is
their experience, why dont' we include it?"  Previous postings have
suggested, quite rightly, that "inaccuracies" perhaps speak to larger
truths.  Here perhaps the "larger truth" is what I rather facetiously refer
to as the oprah-fication of American culture:  the absolute reification of
"personal experience" above all other forms of knowing.  How have others
handled this problem?  --Linda

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

--MS_Mac_OE_3127673457_205232_MIME_Part
Content-type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable






Dear Forum: In response to Linda's posting, I too would like to see or have=
 suggestions in developing some kind of "how to" list for getting =
students to do more oral history assignments. How would such an assignment b=
e graded? What parameters would have to be set up and enforced? Practical qu=
estions such as this need to be addressed. Pete Haro. 



----------

From: Linda Shopes <Lshopes@AOL.COM>

To: ORALHISTORYFORUM@ASHP.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU

Subject: follow up on recent postings

Date: Sun, Feb 9, 2003, 6:33 AM





A few comments on the most re=
cent postings - first, I am enormously impressed and encouraged by the creat=
ive work in oral history being done at the high school level.  Tom Murr=
ay is right in suggesting how doing an interview with a participant in histo=
ry can reenergize students.  It connects them with their community, ope=
ns up tough qustions about not only the past but the present, gives them pri=
de in doing something tangible, visible to others.  Donna Sharer is als=
o right that doing a classroom oral history project is very labor intensive,=
 not to be undertaken casually.  



Donna's idea that students should listen to and evaluate interviews in grou=
ps is a good one, I think; I've always found it useful, when teaching interv=
iewing technique, to have the class listen to excerpts of existing interveiw=
s - not necessarily those that are esp. bad or good, just typical interviews=
 - and critique them.  That brings home the abstractions of "leadi=
ng questions, "follow up," etc.  



Donna also talks about her class's interviewing project on the Cold War - I=
'd be curious to see the list of questions the class developed on this topic=
.  One of the things I find quite difficult about oral history is bring=
ing broad historical topics like the Cold War down to the personal level - w=
hat sort of questions does one ask to connect an individual life to the Cold=
 War - or any generalization - in a meaningful way?  Anyone have any th=
oughts on this, examples to post to the list?



Finally there's Donna's comment that her students questioned her cutting in=
accurate statements from the final project on the grounds that "if this=
 is their experience, why dont' we include it?"  Previous postings=
 have suggested, quite rightly, that "inaccuracies" perhaps speak =
to larger truths.  Here perhaps the "larger truth" is what I =
rather facetiously refer to as the oprah-fication of American culture:  =
;the absolute reification of "personal experience" above all other=
 forms of knowing.  How have others handled this problem?  --Linda=




This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our =
Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History. 




This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

--MS_Mac_OE_3127673457_205232_MIME_Part--
=========================================================================
Date:         Mon, 10 Feb 2003 14:30:15 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Thomas Murray 
Subject:      Getting kids involved in Oral History

I don't worry about getting kids willing to do Oral History.  Oral History is the core of
my currirulum.  I let the kids know on the first day exactly what will be expected of
them.  They will be an author, a researcher, a detective and yes, a historian.  My
course, The History of the Vietnam War, is just a series of interviews that when
examined in total and researched by the stuents becomes the course.

I start out the first two weeks building a base with slides, very short videos (no more
than 8 to 10 minutes) and music.  There is a lot of class discussion of what they hear
and see.  This two weeks creates an interest, as well as says to the kids, "Things are
different in this course."  At two weeks I assign email interviews to each student.
Email is great.  The kids loe it and ther Vietnam Vets love it.  It's a conversation with a
pause button.  I help the kids understand these interviews as a class.  We examine
each email and show how a few can be turned into an article or report for our book.

Soon after we start the email interviews we start entertaining class guests.  We
prepare for each guest with research.  I work hard to know what they will talk about
in general.  We reflect on each guest and then research new items or things we
question.

Finally, we do face to face private one on one interviews.  The kids by now are very
skilled and feel good about this challenge,

All of this ends in a report.  The reports are pubished in a book, "The Heart of a
Warrior".  The books are presented in a very personal way by students to veterans at
a Welcme Home party the last day of the school year.

Oral Hstory is this course.  It's not just somethng for extra credit or an add on.

My at-risk kids frequently come to my school and my class with all F's.  They leave
this class as a skilled student/author.  Their parents are so proud.  It works for
everybody.

At certain times of the semester the work load can get overwhelming, but a little
experience helps reduce this a lot.  A goos high quality TA also helps.

This year, as an added feature, we professionally taped, with the help of a TV
production class, all classroom guests.  The video Heart of a Warrior will bring tears
to your eyes.

Oral History changes kid's lives.  Make it the class not something extra to grade.
You'll never look back again.

Tom Murray

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Mon, 10 Feb 2003 12:46:41 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Betsey Ellerbroek 
Organization: crmm
Subject:      Recent postings
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Dear Forum,
In response to Peter Haro's question on getting more students to do more
oral history assignments. Contact your local museum or historical
society! There are not enough hours in a day to interview all of the
people that have stories to tell. Many pass on before their story can be
told. I am the Education Director at the Columbia River Maritime Museum
in Astoria, Oregon. We have been working with high school students for a
number of years in oral history. Our first project involved students
interviewing community members after doing research on various local
history topics. These oral histories, and photos from our archives were
developed into a video that the students created through a technology
course at the high school.  Other oral histories that the students have
collected have been included in some of our museum exhibits, and two
CD-ROMs that we have produced about the treacherous Columbia River bar.
I think that it is very important for students to do some research about
a particular topic and interview people that have experienced that
particular time or event. It is much more meaningful than just reading
about it or discussing it. Having a finished product, like we did, when
the assignment is completed is very motivating to the students and gives
them a feeling of importance.
Betsey Ellerbroek
Education Director/Visitor Services Manager
Columbia River Maritime Museum

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Mon, 10 Feb 2003 16:02:33 EST
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Aurora Levins Morales 
Subject:      Re: follow up on recent postings
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hi--
    For those of you interested in the Latino History Project I worked on,
the case study will be posted on our website by late April, with information
on how to order the workbook with lesson plans etc.  The site is under
construction now, but the url will be http://www.museumca.org/lhp.
    I'd also like to let folks know about the role of oral history in a
community history organizing project my brother and I are working on in rural
Puerto Rico, where we were born.  Our long term goal is to turn our family
farm into a community education center with an experimental organic farm
where local farmers can try out new crops and farming methods without
economic risk to themselves.  We want to help diversify the agriculture which
is staggering along on coffee, bananas and oranges, and also use the rich
history of the region to build the local economy through socially responsible
tourism.  We began with oral history as a way of both recording the community
history, and beginning to introduce a different perspective about the value
of what people know.    First I went down for two months and did a bunch of
archival research on land ownership over the past 125 years and a series of
oral histories.  I asked alot of questions about agricultural practices, and
was able to get good information on ecological changes over the past 25
disastrous years of green revolution clear-cutting, and on traditional
practices going back to the 1910s.
    Then I returned with my brother, an organizer and visual artist, and my
former partner, a photographer.  We did more interviews, got 500 photos of
the community, including portraits of all the oral history subjects and many
images of people at work, and my brother did several piecehe community store
with my laptop computer and the day's haul of digital images, and people
began showing up to see what we'd done so far, and to comment ont he stories
we were collecting.  My brother also set up a roadside studio and did a
beautiful rendering of the store itself, over a period of a week, in which
many people got to see his work in progress.  We also scanned many of
people's personal family photos.   I also talked with people about not
selling off antiquities they find on their land, but holding it for future
community development.  People find old stone mortars and pestles left by
indigenous people, 19th century coffee plantation coains and old tools,
nails, newspapers and other items.  Tourists from the city often buy these
things for forty or fifty dollars and then they're gone.  I began talking
with people about creating a local museum where the objects could be
surroundedby their stories, and where they could earn money from their
history not once, but repeatedly.
    I went back eight months later and distributed the first of what will be
a series of posters.  The township in which this barrio is locates is the
poorest in Puerto Rico.  We decided to begin our organizing campaign this w
ay.  Each poster uses an historical photograph collected from a local family.
The first one shows a group of workers atthe end of the harvest of 1955.
Elders are still remembered and current elders appear as young women and men.
 We enlarged the image of one worker and had him with his foot resting on
part of the text.  It read:  Where did we come from?  There are those who
remember. Ask them! Memory is a Natural Resource of Maricao.  I handed the
posters out for free.  Within hours I was being stopped on the road and asked
for additional copies.  We plan to use the theme of identifying the people
themselves as resources of this community that has been told repeatedly it
has none.
    We've done this project with very little funding, and therefore had to
move far more slowly than we want to, but already the work has had an impact.
 One of the local churches and the public grade school and junior high
principals are all very enthusiastic and wrote letters of support when we
applied for more funding.  Just as students get energized, community elders
and working adults began to talk much more about how they wanted the local
economy to work, about re-starting a farmers' co-op my father organized in
1950 and that was taken over by big farmers and destroyed soon after, about
what kinds of new crops they might try growing.  Research showed this area
had once produced ginger for export, and some people became excited about
trying to reintroduce it.  Just being asked, for the record, about what they
knew, with obvious respect for their opinions, was such an empowering
experience for people who spend their lives being ignored by burocracies.

                            Aurora Levins Morales

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Mon, 10 Feb 2003 13:19:40 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Peter Haro 
Subject:      Re: follow up on recent postings
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----=_Part_6282_5714892.1044911818897"

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Dear Donna: Is it possible to obtain a copy of the booklet that you referred to? Teaching different perspectives of the Cold War. Finally, did your students write reports or essays regarding their interviews which were then submitted to the instructor or were they recorded via tape or some other media? Pete Haro.
Original message attached.

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

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I'd like to add to Tom Murry's "plug" for oral history energizing
students.  The high school I teach at has tracking - I teach the students
who aren't selected for honors / rapid / AP / magnet classes.  The students
that were the most enthusiastic on the school project were four young men who
were often disruptive / argumentative / etc.  In the middle of the project
one was placed in a "special" after school program.  So, ALL students
benefit from oral history!
 
Regarding the Cold War project - these are the questions -
 
1.  When and where were you born?  Where did you grown up?
2.  What important political events do you remember from your
lifetime?  Why were these events important to you?
3.  What important economic events do you remember from your
lifetime?  Why were these events important to you?
4.  What important social changes do you remember from your
lifetime?  Why were these events important to you?
5.  How would you define the Cold War?
6.  What were you told about the Cold War in school?
7.  Do you think the Cold War affected you?  Why or why
not?
8.  Did you learn about other countries while you were in
school?  Which countries?  What did you learn about them?
9.  Do you think how you look at other people or countries has changed
since the Cold War?
10.  How has your life changed since the Cold War?
11.  What do you think we can learn from the Cold War?
 
I should clarify what I meant by "incorrect" information.  Students
interviewed people who grew up in the US and outside of the US (Caribbean,
Eastern Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and Latin America.   Some of
the people  gave incorrect information re: alliances / wars / dates. 
We didn't change anything about their opinion / experiences.  We also
didn't change their definition of the Cold War.  What I found the most
interesting is what they learned in school and lessons from the Cold War. 
This was an opportunity to not only discuss perspectives but also the term
"enemy."  Many people shared their memories of the "evil empire," 
fear of the Soviets, etc.  Two people were from the former Soviet Union and
they had stories about the "evil" US. (The purpose of the project was to
produce a booklet for teachers to use in teaching multiple perspectives about
the Cold War.  I included many lessons plans - it is 70 pages.  We
also included local history - our school's connection to the Cold War, articles
from local papers on fall out shelters, political debates, etc.)  
 
I'm enjoying the discussion!

Donna
 
On Sun, 9 Feb 2003 09:33:10 EST Linda Shopes <Lshopes@AOL.COM> writes:

  
A few comments on the most recent postings - first, I am
  enormously impressed and encouraged by the creative work in oral history being
  done at the high school level.  Tom Murray is right in suggesting how
  doing an interview with a participant in history can reenergize
  students.  It connects them with their community, opens up tough qustions
  about not only the past but the present, gives them pride in doing something
  tangible, visible to others.  Donna Sharer is also right that doing a
  classroom oral history project is very labor intensive, not to be undertaken
  casually.  

Donna's idea that students should listen to and
  evaluate interviews in groups is a good one, I think; I've always found it
  useful, when teaching interviewing technique, to have the class listen to
  excerpts of existing interveiws - not necessarily those that are esp. bad or
  good, just typical interviews - and critique them.  That brings home the
  abstractions of "leading questions, "follow up," etc.  

Donna also
  talks about her class's interviewing project on the Cold War - I'd be curious
  to see the list of questions the class developed on this topic.  One of
  the things I find quite difficult about oral history is bringing broad
  historical topics like the Cold War down to the personal level - what sort of
  questions does one ask to connect an individual life to the Cold War - or any
  generalization - in a meaningful way?  Anyone have any thoughts on this,
  examples to post to the list?

Finally there's Donna's comment that her
  students questioned her cutting inaccurate statements from the final project
  on the grounds that "if this is their experience, why dont' we include
  it?"  Previous postings have suggested, quite rightly, that
  "inaccuracies" perhaps speak to larger truths.  Here perhaps the "larger
  truth" is what I rather facetiously refer to as the oprah-fication of American
  culture:  the absolute reification of "personal experience" above all
  other forms of knowing.  How have others handled this problem? 
  --Linda

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit
  our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching
  U.S. History. 
  
 
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

------=_Part_6282_5714892.1044911818897--
=========================================================================
Date:         Mon, 10 Feb 2003 12:05:07 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         gerardo licon 
Subject:      Another Reference Source
Comments: To: cpitton@ae21.org
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable
Content-disposition: inline

Hello everyone=2C

I am a graduate Student of History at the University of Southern Californ=
ia=2E  In addition to all the great references that have been suggested I=
 would like to add another source that has been very helpful to me in pre=
paring undergraduate interviewers=2E  The book entitled=2C RECORDING ORAL=
 HISTORY=3A=A0 A Practical Guide for Social Scientists by Valerie Raleigh=
 Yow is a great resource that deals with the practical matters for conduc=
ting oral interviews including=3A preparation=2C ethics=2C legal precauti=
ons=2C conducting the interview=2C and post-interview matters=2E  I would=
 not suggest this to be read by high school students (in its entirety)=2C=
 but I would definitely reccomend it to teachers=2E  This book is easy to=
 read and includes suggested readings if you would like more information =
on any one topic=2C but I found everything in the book to suffice=2E =


Gerardo Licon
History Department
University of Southern California    =

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Tue, 11 Feb 2003 11:14:34 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "Alan N. Walker" 
Subject:      fyi
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
              boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0042_01C2D1BE.C1D74FE0"

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

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        charset="Windows-1252"
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Speaking of resources, here is an incredibly rich resource for social =
history, especially for old sociology majors like myself. Enjoy.

 http://www.socallib.org/

Alan Walker,
Torrance, CA

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

------=_NextPart_000_0042_01C2D1BE.C1D74FE0
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        charset="Windows-1252"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable









Speaking of resources, here is an incredibly rich =
resource for=20
social history, especially for old sociology majors like myself.=20
Enjoy.

 http://www.socallib.org/
 
Alan Walker,
Torrance, CA
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

------=_NextPart_000_0042_01C2D1BE.C1D74FE0--
=========================================================================
Date:         Wed, 12 Feb 2003 16:20:49 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Patrick Mchugh 
Subject:      Evaluating Oral Histories
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
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=========================================================================
Date:         Wed, 12 Feb 2003 16:44:04 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Patrick Mchugh 
Subject:      Re: Tips for students
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Ms Levins Morales comments reminded me of how personal and unpredictable these interviews can be.  The need for practice interviewing and peer review are critical.  From becoming familiar with the equipment, to creating appropriate questions, to developing a rapport require patience and skill.  Active listening and creating a comfort zone for both interviewer and interviewee can make an oral history a classic or a bust.  We interviewed residents of Flint, Michigan about their involvement in Civil Rights actions, in particular, the struggle to end housing discrimination in Flint in 1968.  Though we tried to prepare the students for the emotion and intimacy of the interview, the students still marveled and some struggled with how personal the stories were to our interviewees.  That separates oral history from journalism.  Thank you.

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 13 Feb 2003 11:55:38 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "Greg (\"Fritz\") Umbach" 
Subject:      Re: talking about oral history
In-Reply-To:  <7a.37db432b.2b74a489@aol.com>
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All,

Linda's remarks of Fri, 7 Feb detailing the ways in which instructors
might employ  oral history as a means to crack the tough pedagogical
nut of "historical knowledge" - the messiness of evidence, the
contingent nature of our interpretations - strikes me as particularly
useful.  But perhaps there is value in modeling these rather abstract
ideas for students before they encounter specific examples in their
own research; that is, students may more readily recognzie the
particular quirks that emerge in their own work as manifestations of
more general phenomena if they know such dynamics in advance.

  One good monograph-length study that puts "known facts" (to use
Linda's language) in dialogue with "individual perceptions," as well
as teases meaning out of the discrepancies between informants' oral
recollections, can be found in Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold:
The History of a Lesbian Community which explores the changing lives
of lesbians in Buffalo from 1940 to 1970.  Conveniently for
instructors, much of the source material for this book - including 27
transcribed oral histories with 92 tapes - have been archived at the
"lesbian herstory archives" (http://www.lesbianherstoryarchives.org/)
making it possible for students to retrace the work of the authors.

A much shorter, article length study that chronicles the role of oral
history in forcing us to re-examine what seemed like the "settled
facts" of women's history can be found in Judith N. McArthur, "From
Rosie the Riveter to the Feminine Mystique: An Historiographical
Survey of American Women and World War II," Bulletin of Bibliography
44:1 (1987): 1-8.


Best regards,

Fritz Umbach

--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Fritz Umbach, Project Director
September 11 Digital Archive
A joint project of American Social History Project/
Center for Media and Learning and the Center for History
and New Media at George Mason University

The Graduate Center
The City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue, Room X107.11, New York, New York 10016
Tel: 212-817-1964   E-mail: ghu1@cornell.edu

http://911digitalarchive.org
http://www.ashp.cuny.edu

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

--============_-1166967156==_ma============
Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"



All,


Linda's
remarks of Fri, 7 Feb detailing the ways in which instructors might
employ  oral history as a means to crack the tough pedagogical
nut of "historical knowledge" - the messiness of evidence,
the contingent nature of our interpretations - strikes me as
particularly useful.  But perhaps there is value in modeling
these rather abstract ideas for students before they encounter
specific examples in their own research; that is, students may more
readily recognzie the particular quirks that emerge in their own work
as manifestations of more general phenomena if they know such dynamics
in advance. 


 One good monograph-length study that puts "known facts"
(to use Linda's language) in dialogue with "individual
perceptions," as well as teases meaning out of the discrepancies
between informants' oral recollections, can be found in Boots
of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian
Community which explores the changing lives of lesbians in Buffalo
from 1940 to 1970.  Conveniently for instructors, much of the
source material for this book - including 27 transcribed oral
histories with 92 tapes - have been archived at the "lesbian
herstory archives"
(http://www.lesbianherstoryarchives.org/) making it possible
for students to retrace the work of the authors.



A much shorter, article length study that chronicles the role of oral
history in forcing us to re-examine what seemed like the "settled
facts" of women's history can be found in Judith N. McArthur,
"From Rosie the Riveter to the Feminine Mystique: An
Historiographical Survey of American Women and World War II,"
Bulletin of Bibliography 44:1 (1987): 1-8.





Best regards,



Fritz Umbach



-- 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Fritz Umbach, Project
Director
September 11 Digital
Archive
A joint project of
American Social History Project/
Center for Media and
Learning and the Center for History
and New Media at George
Mason University


The Graduate Center
The City University of New
York
365 Fifth Avenue, Room
X107.11, New York, New York 10016
Tel: 212-817-1964  
E-mail: ghu1@cornell.edu 


http://911digitalarchive.org
http://www.ashp.cuny.edu 





This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
--============_-1166967156==_ma============--
=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 13 Feb 2003 23:37:34 EST
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Linda Shopes 
Subject:      Continuing the discussion
MIME-Version: 1.0
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All:  I'm enjoying the continuing commentary.  Let me again interject a few
comments & suggestions and raise some additional questions.

First, a couple of postings that caught my attention:  Tom Murray's 3-step
approach to orienting students to oral history interviewing makes good sense
- first, an email exchange, then classroom guests interviewed by the class,
and finally one-on-one interviews.  A nice progression, I think.  Second, I
second Betsey Ellerbroek's suggestions that classrooms team up with
historical societies to develop a local oral history project - this sort of
collaboration is a great way of connecting the classroom to the community and
to do "real work."  And I echo the commentator from Flint, Michigan, who
noted how the depth and intimacy that frequently develops in an interview can
be surprising, sometimes difficult, sometimes exhilerating for students - and
the rest of us, too.  While I will never minimize the way the social
identities of or differences between interviewer and interviewee effect the
interview,  I also have found an interview is often a rather unique exchange,
in which the intimacy of the encounter can tend to blur differences - in
generation or in class, for example - that are often difficult to talk
across.  And I appreciate Donna Sharer's posting her Cold War questions:
especially with the broader questions (e.g. about important economic events),
do students have follow up prompts if narrators seem to fumble, or don't get
the connection between economic developments and their own lives?  And with a
question like the one about defining the Cold War, once a narrator has
answered, is s/he perhaps presented with an alternative definition, and asked
to comment upon it?
In other words, how do students work within this overall frame?

Second, some broader questions and observations:  Several have noted
correctly that oral history opens up multiple perspectives on the past,
different points of view, different truths, if you will.  I worry, though,
that we sometimes leave it at that - everyone has their say - yet some
perspectives are more thoughtful or insightful than others; some are more
critical, less platitudinous or self-justifying; some more grounded in deep
knowledge of the subject at hand; some, in the end, more valuable, or even
better, than others.  How do we work with students to make these sorts of
assessments?   And to use interviews to build an historical argument, not
simply move us with their admitedly considerable emotional power?  And I'm
wondering too, if - in some of the projects described - you've felt the need
to open up the story and interview not only those with whom you are perhaps
in sympathy, but those whose views run counter to the project ethos, if you
will:  for example, has Ms. Morales considered interviewing those who oppose
community agriculture or who support aggressive tourism; do Mr. Murray's
students interview opponents of the Vietnam War?  Did the Flint folks
interveiw those who opposed housing integration in 1968?

I'd also like to hear more about the way you use oral history and how these
"uses" have been received.  A few have mentioned publictions, programs, or
videos.  Do these open up more conversation about the meaning of the past, or
are they, in the end, simply commemorative?   I like to think of an interview
as the beginning of a conversation, one that can involve a classroom, a
community, a group of narrators, in a broader conversation about what we
remember, why we remember it, what we choose to forget or ignore.   Ms.
Morales begins to address these questions - can anyone add to this?  And if
so, where have the rough spots been?  Have any of these public conversations
been contentious?

Everyone to date has more or less recounted oral history "success stories."
Any not so successful experiences or continuing challenges we can ponder, or
otherwise learn from?  For me a big challenge continues to be getting
students to think beyond technique in doing an interview (asking open ended
questions, etc.) and to work to wrap their own minds around the narrator's -
to try to figure out where the narrator is coming from and ask questions that
penetrate into that standpoint, or way
of looking at things, and also to question it - to make the interview a
critical exchange, not simply "telling your story."

Finally, several have requested and offered some fine additional resources.
Here's a few more:  For those interested in teaching guides, the Oral History
Association has recently published Oral History Projects in Your Classroom by
Linda P. Wood, with introduction by Marjorie L. McLellan (2001).  It's
designed especially for precollegiate teachers, but it might also be useful
in the undergraduate classroom.  It's a step-by-step guide and includes
sample forms, handouts, examples, curriculum suggestions, and disucssion
questions based upon existing classroom projects.  Also useful at the
precollegiate level is the Oral History theme issue of OAH's Magazine of
History (Spring 1997), edited by McLellan and Cliff Kuhn.  College and
university professors may find may find especially useful the Oral History
Review's theme issue, "Practice and Pedagogy," edited by Kathleen Nasstrom
and Timothy Fong; it's vol. 25, nos 1-2 (Summer/Fall, 1998).  Fritz Umback's
recent posting brings to mind the annual essays on oral history as it relates
to a specific historical topic that ran in the September issue of the JAH
from about 1987 through 2002.  Essays address ways oral history can open up
new questions, new perspectives (and not simply add "new facts") on a wide
range of historical topics, including  WW2, western women's history, the
civil rights movement,  the history of childhood, the WW2 era internment of
Japanese Americans, the history of science, and dozens more.  Aurora Levins
Morales's discussion of work in Puerto Rico recalls Paul Thompson and Hugo
Slim's book Listening for a Change, which discusses the use of oral history
in community development projects.  Finally, while I have already noted
H-Oralhist, the H-Net affiliated listserv focusing on oral history, I would
also like to mention that H-Oralhist's homepage, accessible at 
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~oralhist/, includes a wealth of resources and
links.

I look forward to our continuing discussion.  --Linda

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

--part1_7b.a06b570.2b7dcc8e_boundary
Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

All:  I'm enjoying the continuing commentary.&nbs=
p; Let me again interject a few comments & suggestions and raise some ad=
ditional questions.



First, a couple of postings that caught my attention:  Tom Murray's 3-s=
tep approach to orienting students to oral history interviewing makes good s=
ense - first, an email exchange, then classroom guests interviewed by the cl=
ass, and finally one-on-one interviews.  A nice progression, I think.&n=
bsp; Second, I second Betsey Ellerbroek's suggestions that classrooms team u=
p with historical societies to develop a local oral history project - this s=
ort of collaboration is a great way of connecting the classroom to the commu=
nity and to do "real work."  And I echo the commentator from Flint, Mic=
higan, who noted how the depth and intimacy that frequently develops in an i=
nterview can be surprising, sometimes difficult, sometimes exhilerating for=20=
students - and the rest of us, too.  While I will never minimize the wa=
y the social identities of or differences between interviewer and interviewe=
e effect the interview,  I also have found an interview is often a rath=
er unique exchange, in which the intimacy of the encounter can tend to blur=20=
differences - in generation or in class, for example - that are often diffic=
ult to talk across.  And I appreciate Donna Sharer's posting her Cold W=
ar questions:  especially with the broader questions (e.g. about import=
ant economic events), do students have follow up prompts if narrators seem t=
o fumble, or don't get the connection between economic developments and thei=
r own lives?  And with a question like the one about defining the Cold=20=
War, once a narrator has answered, is s/he perhaps presented with an alterna=
tive definition, and asked to comment upon it? 

In other words, how do students work within this overall frame?



Second, some broader questions and observations:  Several have noted co=
rrectly that oral history opens up multiple perspectives on the past, differ=
ent points of view, different truths, if you will.  I worry, though, th=
at we sometimes leave it at that - everyone has their say - yet some perspec=
tives are more thoughtful or insightful than others; some are more critical,=
 less platitudinous or self-justifying; some more grounded in deep knowledge=
 of the subject at hand; some, in the end, more valuable, or even better, th=
an others.  How do we work with students to make these sorts of assessm=
ents?   And to use interviews to build an historical argument, not=
 simply move us with their admitedly considerable emotional power?  And=
 I'm wondering too, if - in some of the projects described - you've felt the=
 need to open up the story and interview not only those with whom you are pe=
rhaps in sympathy, but those whose views run counter to the project ethos, i=
f you will:  for example, has Ms. Morales considered interviewing those=
 who oppose community agriculture or who support aggressive tourism; do Mr.=20=
Murray's students interview opponents of the Vietnam War?  Did the Flin=
t folks interveiw those who opposed housing integration in 1968?  



I'd also like to hear more about the way you use oral history and how these=20=
"uses" have been received.  A few have mentioned publictions, programs,=
 or videos.  Do these open up more conversation about the meaning of th=
e past, or are they, in the end, simply commemorative?   I like to=
 think of an interview as the beginning of a conversation, one that can invo=
lve a classroom, a community, a group of narrators, in a broader conversatio=
n about what we remember, why we remember it, what we choose to forget or ig=
nore.   Ms. Morales begins to address these questions - can anyone=
 add to this?  And if so, where have the rough spots been?  Have a=
ny of these public conversations been contentious?



Everyone to date has more or less recounted oral history "success stories."&=
nbsp;  Any not so successful experiences or continuing challenges we ca=
n ponder, or otherwise learn from?  For me a big challenge continues to=
 be getting students to think beyond technique in doing an interview (asking=
 open ended questions, etc.) and to work to wrap their own minds around the=20=
narrator's - to try to figure out where the narrator is coming from and ask=20=
questions that penetrate into that standpoint, or way 

of looking at things, and also to question it - to make the interview a crit=
ical exchange, not simply "telling your story."  



Finally, several have requested and offered some fine additional resources.&=
nbsp; Here's a few more:  For those interested in teaching guides, the=20=
Oral History Association has recently published Oral History Projects in=20=
Your Classroom by Linda P. Wood, with introduction by Marjorie L. McLell=
an (2001).  It's designed especially for precollegiate teachers, but it=
 might also be useful in the undergraduate classroom.  It's a step-by-s=
tep guide and includes sample forms, handouts, examples, curriculum suggesti=
ons, and disucssion questions based upon existing classroom projects. =20=
Also useful at the precollegiate level is the Oral History theme issue of OA=
H's Magazine of History (Spring 1997), edited by McLellan and Cliff K=
uhn.  College and university professors may find may find especially us=
eful the Oral History Review's theme issue, "Practice and Pedagogy,"=20=
edited by Kathleen Nasstrom and Timothy Fong; it's vol. 25, nos 1-2 (Summer/=
Fall, 1998).  Fritz Umback's recent posting brings to mind the annual e=
ssays on oral history as it relates to a specific historical topic that ran=20=
in the September issue of the JAH from about 1987 through 2002.  Essays=
 address ways oral history can open up new questions, new perspectives (and=20=
not simply add "new facts") on a wide range of historical topics, including&=
nbsp; WW2, western women's history, the civil rights movement,  the his=
tory of childhood, the WW2 era internment of Japanese Americans, the history=
 of science, and dozens more.  Aurora Levins Morales's discussion of wo=
rk in Puerto Rico recalls Paul Thompson and Hugo Slim's book Listening fo=
r a Change, which discusses the use of oral history in community develop=
ment projects.  Finally, while I have already noted H-Oralhist, the H-N=
et affiliated listserv focusing on oral history, I would also like to mentio=
n that H-Oralhist's homepage, accessible at http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~oralhist/, includes a wealth of resources and links.



I look forward to our continuing discussion.  --Linda
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

--part1_7b.a06b570.2b7dcc8e_boundary--
=========================================================================
Date:         Fri, 14 Feb 2003 16:00:24 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Thomas Murray 
Subject:      Continuing the discussion

The question was posted, "Do we look at opponents to the Vietnam War?"  My
class looks at as many aspects of the war as we can get interviews.  Last
semester we interviewed:

               * 18 Vietnam Veterans
               * 4 people we called "volunteers"
               * 6 family members
               * 5 combatants from non-USA military units

To clarify the vets were Special Forces, Officers, grunts, marines, Navy
Patrol Boat, & pilots.  One was a double amputee who steped on a mine.
Another was a 100% PTSD disabled Marine.  One was very active in the
Vietnam Veterans against the war when he came home and participated in
the "Winter Soldiers" protests.

Our volunteers included a UPI reporter with many, many years in country.
Another was a Red Cross Donut Dollie.  A third was a CIA, Air America
Pilot.  The last was an SDS campus agitator who was kicked out of high
school at age 16 for his protest activity.

Our family members were a wife whose husband was killed and left her with
5 kids back home.  One sister of a KIA vet gave us audio tapes of him that
he sent home each week prior to his death.  They were very clear but had a
very erie feeling to them.  We had two adult children interviews that had
their Dad's crying after they read the interviews.  We also had a founding
member of Sons and Daughters in Touch.

Finally we interviewed two South Vietnamese soldiers.  Both were brutally
imprisoned after the war was over and placed in Re-Education camps.
Another was a Montagnard who has watched his culture destroyed since the
war.  The last was a Hmong who met his wife in a refugee camp.  Their
entire village was supported by CIA support.  The final interview in this
set was a man who was a high school student in Hanoi during Nixon's carpet
bombing.  He went to school one day to find approximately 200 fewer
students who had been killed the previous night by the bombing.

The thing that the kids learn so vividly in the expansive exercise is that
almost everyone has the same opinion no matter what their place in the
war.  War has no winners.  It leaves deep scars on all who experience it.

The kids also learn as citizens we better know who we elect and what
they're all about.  It's far to easy for old white haired men like me to
me to send somebody else's son to war.

This course teaches about life and it's challenges.  It teaches history
but it also teaches the responsiblity of citizenship.  Above all, it tells
my at-risk kids that no matter where life takes you and how difficult it
seems at times good things come to good people, eventually.  Hang in
their, work hard, your success will come.  They see this in every set of
eyes they look into in these interviews.

Tom Murray

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=========================================================================
Date:         Mon, 17 Feb 2003 03:25:26 EST
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Aurora Levins Morales 
Subject:      Re: Continuing the discussion
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
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In a message dated 2/14/03 5:51:27 AM, Lshopes@AOL.COM writes:
And I'm wondering too, if - in some of the projects described - you've felt
the need
to open up the story and interview not only those with whom you are perhaps
in sympathy, but those whose views run counter to the project ethos, if you
will:  for example, has Ms. Morales considered interviewing those who oppose
community agriculture or who support aggressive tourism

    I have a couple of responses to this question.  First of all, the project
in Indiera is quite openly an organizing project.  We are not there simply to
document what has happened to the people of Indiera.  We also want to have an
impact on what will happen to them in the future, and we have definite
biases.  We want our people to control their own local economy as much as
possible.  We want to protect the ecology of the region.  We are not neutral.
 We are documenting the history of Indiera because we want to understand the
forces that shaped it and because we want people to think critically about
their past so they can be more active in shaping their future.  But the fact
that our biases are clear to us doesn't mean we only interview people who
agree with us.  It's nowhere near that simple, anyway.  People's feelings
about the land, farming, the local economy and political structure, social
hierarchies, tourism, the goverment in San Juan, what Puerto Rico's
relationship to
the US should or can be--- are complex and contradictory.
    The community storekeeper opposes statehood based on his experiences of
racism in Chicago, where he started out with the proceeds of the sale of his
sister's goats, selling underwear to factory workers from a cart.  Since his
return with enough money to set up shop, he has acquired the land of many
poor families, probably by taking it as collateral for food and household
goods bought on credit, as storekeepers have been doing in the mountains for
150 years.  He employs a number of young men at miserable wages, one of whom,
despondent over his dead-end job clearing someone else's land, and the
prospect of domestic violence charges brought by his ex-wife, recently killed
himself. The storekeeper is an economic power in the community and is
resented by some.  He also frequently gives food away and offered his store
walls for a photo mural portrait of the community.  Is he for or against our
vision?  Hard to say.
    We also spoke to a pro-statehood, Pentecostal elder whose family descends
from some of the earliest big coffee planters to claim title to land in
Indiera, and from the illegitimate offspring of more recent ones. His
immediate family's holdings have been reduced to a few small plots, but he
still thinks of practically everyone else as interlopers, and yet he can talk
about the bitter cruelties of class in the barrio less euphamistically than
practically anyone else we spoke with.  Is he an opponent?  Yes and no.
    As good organizers, we spend more time listening than talking.  When we
ask people to tell their stories, we also ask what they think Indiera needs,
explore their ideas in depth and ask what they think about ours.   It's
important to us to understand how Indiera works, so we want to listen to and
make sense of the points of view of all members of the community.  We talked
with an Episcopal deacon who's  been a coffee worker all his life, and thinks
the wealthy families are more important than the poor ones, and his wife who
vehemently disagrees.  We talked with our neighbor across the road who dumps
trash and builds pigpens on our land, works for the current political machine
and makes sure only supporters of his pro-statehood faction get water during
droughts.  The fact that I had been doing research on Pentecostal history and
knew about the California Puerto Rican missionaries who had brought the faith
to the island in 1916 surprised him into our first friendly conversation in
decades.  We talked with the biggest landholder in the area, whom we know
recently kept a Dominican woman in virtual slavery on his land, and with a
corrupt politician who runs a tiny graft empire.
    But we do think some of the stories are "better" than others, hold a more
complex and realistic picture of the way people's lives are connected.  Some
people have thought more about social relations in the barrio, or the impact
of recent agricultural practices on the land  Some people are more willing
than others to examine differences in power that are fundamental to how
people have lived with each other.  The pro-statehood elder would probably
disagree with us about many things, but his viewpoints are extremely valuable
to us.  His life history explains a lot to us about why he's made some of the
choices he's made.  We're learning more and more about what lies behind
people's religious and political affiliations, and none of it is obvious or
easy.
    So I don't think the fact that we have an agenda makes us less open to
the stories of people who disagree with us.  We actually find them
fascinating.  And disagreement doesn't necessarily mean they'd oppose our
efforts.  The fact that we know our biases, and that we have something we
want to accomplish beyond creating a record, helps rather than hinders us.
We have too much at stake to want a falsified story.  It's in our interests
to really get why people think what they think.  Also, the fact that we are
of this community, that many of the people we are interviewing remember us as
children and remember our parents, means people understand that we have an
investment, that we aren't hit and run researchers.  We have long term
relationships with these people and many of them know our family supports
independence, that my father started the first co-op in 1950, and that we
aren't affiliated with the two main parties that take turns running things.
They know who we are.  We put those relationships at risk if we only talk to
people who see things our way.  (If there are any.)  Most people like some
part of what we propose and are skeptical about other parts.  I guess that's
one of the things that became obvious as soon as we started this project.
Everyone appreciates the collecting of stories, because the community as a
whole has been ignored for so long.  But beyond that, so far  no-one wholly
agrees or wholly disagrees with us, even the people whose attitudes or
actions horrify us.
    I'm not sure what you meant by "community agriculture".  What we have
proposed is a way for small farmers to use our land to experiment with new
crops in order to diversify agriculture, and to support the efforts of
farmers who want to form a cooperative.  Our interviews include questions
about how agriculture has changed over their lifetimes and what they would
like to see happen.  Actually, the big landowners support agricultural
experimentation because they are concerned with the general decline of
agriculture and are interested in ways of keeping it alive.  Several of them
offered plots of their own land for the project.  Small farmers like the idea
of trying things out without financial risk.  So no-one opposes the
experimental farm.  All the small farmers we found were in favor of a co-op,
though they had varying degrees of faith in whether it could really be
organized and kept independent.  Larger landowners said it wasn't necessary,
but didn't actively oppose it.  Conflicts of interest will certainly arise if
the cooperative actually begins to form, because big coffee farmers won't be
happy if small farmers band together and have more control over prices and
marketing, but they won't openly oppose it, they'll just try to take it over.
                        Aurora Levins Morales
PS. FYI  My last name is Levins Morales, not Morales, following the Latin
American tradition of double last names.

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=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 20 Feb 2003 13:37:32 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "Noonan, Ellen" 
Subject:      using oral history rather than creating it
Mime-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

There has been great discussion so far on the oral history projects people
are doing with students and the many complexities of practice and
interpretation that they involve. But I'm curious about how people teach
with existing oral history accounts. For example, we have 150 oral histories
posted in the Many Pasts section of History Matters (some quite recently
added on the post WWII period). Does anyone assign students to read/listen
to these oral histories, or oral histories from other sources? What do you
ask students to do with them? Do you as teachers use them for your own
preparation?

Just curious.

Ellen
--
Ellen Noonan
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue, Room 7301.11
New York, NY  10016
enoonan@gc.cuny.edu
http://www.ashp.cuny.edu

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=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 20 Feb 2003 13:54:52 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         thomas murray 
Subject:      Re: using oral history rather than creating it
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/html


Ellen,
Oral Histories are used.  My students' Oral History project is being used in high school classrooms in Michigan.  They are in the process of purchasing class sets for American History classes to use during their examination of the Vietnam War.
We use Oral Histories in my class to try to understand what may be going on with those we are getting ready to interview.
I've been invited to Washington DC by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund to teach the Oral History methods I use to other teachers from around the USA.  It's called The Teach Vietnam Teachers Network.
I think Oral History is a growing area of secondary education.
Tom Murray



>

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Date:         Thu, 20 Feb 2003 13:52:27 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "(Dr) Carole E. Adams" 
Subject:      Re: using oral history rather than creating it
In-Reply-To:  
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
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Quoting "Noonan, Ellen" :
Does anyone assign students to read/listen
> to these oral histories, or oral histories from other sources? What do you
> ask students to do with them?

*******
I teach our undergrad history-major methods course, History & Historians, and
we just did a segment on oral history.  I gave out three slave narratives and
asked them to evaluate how well the interviewer did, based on what was
recorded, and how successful/ non-successful each interviewer was at
recognizing the sorts of guidelines for interviewing historians posit today.
One of the three selections was very brief, in narrative rather than first-
person form, didn't use dialect, and said the interviewee knew nothing about
slaves being abused.  Most of the students picked up on all this and made
points such as:  too much interviewer interpretation; not enough background
research by interviewer; no follow-up questions, didn't build rapport with
interviewee, etc.  Out of about 20 students, though, two thought this interview
was the best one [!] because "it was easier to understand."


Carole Elizabeth Adams, PhD
History and Women's Studies
University of Central Florida
Orlando  FL  32816-1350
4000 Central Florida Blvd

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=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 20 Feb 2003 20:15:10 GMT
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Donna Sharer 
Subject:      Re: using oral history rather than creating it

I recently used oral histories from "Hard Times."  I purposedly picked histories from men and women  of different ethnic, class, and geographic backgrounds.   It provided another way to look at the Great Depression because not everyone had "horror" stories.  Other histories showed people  didn't see much change in their lives because, as one African American man stated, African Americans always lived in a "great depression."  Students worked in teams of 3. (I have 33 students in a class).  Each team created a visual story line (drawing) of what they learned about the Depression from the interviewee's perspective.  I have students keep reflective journals on what we study.  The oral histories left the most memorable impression on many students.

Donna Sharer
Phila.

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=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 20 Feb 2003 17:33:31 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "Spencer, John" 
Subject:      Re: using oral history rather than creating it
In-Reply-To:  
Mime-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable

This is an interesting discussion, and I thank Linda and all the
participants for their useful comments.

As Ellen Noonan and others are reminding us, we can engage the =
interpretive
issues that have come up so far in the forum by critically examining
already-existing oral history materials. I am a former high school =
teacher
who now works for the American Social History Project/Center for Media =
and
Learning, running professional development seminars for high school =
teachers
in New York City. Last year we ran an oral history workshop that =
focused on
materials from the "American Life Histories" section
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html) of the Library of
Congress=B9s "American Memory" Web site (one of the "exemplary oral =
history
sites" listed by Linda in her excellent "Making Sense of Oral History"
section of the History Matters site).

Our participating teachers, like many students, had little experience =
with
oral history, and we jumped in with what we felt were some exemplary =
and
provocative documents: contrasting excerpts from the book *Rosie the =
Riveter
Revisited,* read out loud. One informant was a self-professed housewife =
who
insisted, for example, that "patriotic feeling was so strong that =
anyone
would have done anything to help. You never had any of this protest =
type of
thing"; while the other noted that "by 1944 a lot of people were =
questioning
the war...I think when we actually began to see the boys come home in =
late
1943, 1944 -- those that had been injured and started coming back -- =
then
the rumbles grew into roars, and the young people thought maybe they =
were
being led into this." Teachers were intrigued not only by how oral =
sources
challenge and confirm more traditional narratives, as has been =
discussed in
the forum already, but also by how different oral sources challenge =
each
other. It strikes me that by starting students off with carefully =
selected
(e.g., contrasting) transcripts and recordings, rather than with their =
own,
more open-ended interviews, we can help them develop what Linda and =
others
have been searching for -- i.e., a critical stance that is open to the =
power
and immediacy of oral history testimony without simply accepting it at =
face
value. =20

Following this initial exposure, we had teachers search the American =
Life
Histories collection for documents that would add an interesting =
dimension
to topics they already teach. (The "Collection Connections" link, near =
the
bottom of the American Life Histories home page, contains useful ideas =
on
how to search the collection and focus its use for students). Teachers =
then
analyzed these documents, paying attention to (1) issues surrounding =
the
creation of the document (e.g., who produced the interview? Why? When? =
Is
the narrator=B9s story believable? Why or why not?) and (2) connections
between the interview and the larger historical context and events of =
the
period. Finally, teachers discussed ways of using such documents to =
enrich
their existing curricula. Suggestions included dramatic writing =
activities
in which students write and perform a monologue or reader=B9s theater =
script
based on the oral history document(s); comparisons of the transcript to
contemporary stereotypes and images from popular culture; writing a =
dialogue
between the interviewee and a well-known historical figure from the =
period;
and essay assignments, reminiscent of what Melissa Walker described in =
her
earlier post, in which students incorporate the oral history =
document(s)
into a DBQ essay or research paper, as they would any other document.

I, like Ellen, look forward to hearing about approaches other teachers =
have
taken to using existing oral history materials, as well as the results =
these
approaches have had with students.

Best,
John Spencer

--=20
John Spencer
Associate Education Director
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
99 Hudson Street, 3rd floor
New York, NY  10013
Tel: 212/966-4248 x. 208
Fax: 212/966-4589=20
http://www.ashp.cuny.edu
jspencer@gc.cuny.edu


> From: "Noonan, Ellen" 
> Reply-To: "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
> 
> Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 13:37:32 -0500
> To: ORALHISTORYFORUM@ASHP.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: using oral history rather than creating it
>=20
> There has been great discussion so far on the oral history projects =
people
> are doing with students and the many complexities of practice and
> interpretation that they involve. But I'm curious about how people =
teach
> with existing oral history accounts. For example, we have 150 oral =
histories
> posted in the Many Pasts section of History Matters (some quite =
recently
> added on the post WWII period). Does anyone assign students to =
read/listen
> to these oral histories, or oral histories from other sources? What =
do you
> ask students to do with them? Do you as teachers use them for your =
own
> preparation?
>=20
> Just curious.
>=20
> Ellen
> --
> Ellen Noonan
> American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
> The Graduate Center, City University of New York
> 365 Fifth Avenue, Room 7301.11
> New York, NY  10016
> enoonan@gc.cuny.edu
> http://www.ashp.cuny.edu
>=20
> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site =
at
> http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. =
History.

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 20 Feb 2003 20:43:45 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "Dr. Frank L. Frable Jr." 
Organization: Home Account
Subject:      Re: using oral history rather than creating it
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Hi John,
     As an outsider, being neither instructor, teacher, professor or media
type. I am amazed at the revision/ redactive history woven into the oral
history comments of the last several weeks.  For  those who did not live or
were very young children during WW II,  liberal redaction/revision  through
oral history or otherwise appears to be the soupe du jour.   Let objective
commentary trump subjective thinking.  Frank L. Frable
----- Original Message -----
From: Spencer, John 
To: 
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 5:33 PM
Subject: Re: using oral history rather than creating it


> This is an interesting discussion, and I thank Linda and all the
> participants for their useful comments.
>
> As Ellen Noonan and others are reminding us, we can engage the
interpretive
> issues that have come up so far in the forum by critically examining
> already-existing oral history materials. I am a former high school teacher
> who now works for the American Social History Project/Center for Media and
> Learning, running professional development seminars for high school
teachers
> in New York City. Last year we ran an oral history workshop that focused
on
> materials from the "American Life Histories" section
> (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html) of the Library of
> Congress¹s "American Memory" Web site (one of the "exemplary oral history
> sites" listed by Linda in her excellent "Making Sense of Oral History"
> section of the History Matters site).
>
> Our participating teachers, like many students, had little experience with
> oral history, and we jumped in with what we felt were some exemplary and
> provocative documents: contrasting excerpts from the book *Rosie the
Riveter
> Revisited,* read out loud. One informant was a self-professed housewife
who
> insisted, for example, that "patriotic feeling was so strong that anyone
> would have done anything to help. You never had any of this protest type
of
> thing"; while the other noted that "by 1944 a lot of people were
questioning
> the war...I think when we actually began to see the boys come home in late
> 1943, 1944 -- those that had been injured and started coming back -- then
> the rumbles grew into roars, and the young people thought maybe they were
> being led into this." Teachers were intrigued not only by how oral sources
> challenge and confirm more traditional narratives, as has been discussed
in
> the forum already, but also by how different oral sources challenge each
> other. It strikes me that by starting students off with carefully selected
> (e.g., contrasting) transcripts and recordings, rather than with their
own,
> more open-ended interviews, we can help them develop what Linda and others
> have been searching for -- i.e., a critical stance that is open to the
power
> and immediacy of oral history testimony without simply accepting it at
face
> value.
>
> Following this initial exposure, we had teachers search the American Life
> Histories collection for documents that would add an interesting dimension
> to topics they already teach. (The "Collection Connections" link, near the
> bottom of the American Life Histories home page, contains useful ideas on
> how to search the collection and focus its use for students). Teachers
then
> analyzed these documents, paying attention to (1) issues surrounding the
> creation of the document (e.g., who produced the interview? Why? When? Is
> the narrator¹s story believable? Why or why not?) and (2) connections
> between the interview and the larger historical context and events of the
> period. Finally, teachers discussed ways of using such documents to enrich
> their existing curricula. Suggestions included dramatic writing activities
> in which students write and perform a monologue or reader¹s theater script
> based on the oral history document(s); comparisons of the transcript to
> contemporary stereotypes and images from popular culture; writing a
dialogue
> between the interviewee and a well-known historical figure from the
period;
> and essay assignments, reminiscent of what Melissa Walker described in her
> earlier post, in which students incorporate the oral history document(s)
> into a DBQ essay or research paper, as they would any other document.
>
> I, like Ellen, look forward to hearing about approaches other teachers
have
> taken to using existing oral history materials, as well as the results
these
> approaches have had with students.
>
> Best,
> John Spencer
>
> --
> John Spencer
> Associate Education Director
> American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
> The Graduate Center, City University of New York
> 99 Hudson Street, 3rd floor
> New York, NY  10013
> Tel: 212/966-4248 x. 208
> Fax: 212/966-4589
> http://www.ashp.cuny.edu
> jspencer@gc.cuny.edu
>
>
> > From: "Noonan, Ellen" 
> > Reply-To: "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
> > 
> > Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 13:37:32 -0500
> > To: ORALHISTORYFORUM@ASHP.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> > Subject: using oral history rather than creating it
> >
> > There has been great discussion so far on the oral history projects
people
> > are doing with students and the many complexities of practice and
> > interpretation that they involve. But I'm curious about how people teach
> > with existing oral history accounts. For example, we have 150 oral
histories
> > posted in the Many Pasts section of History Matters (some quite recently
> > added on the post WWII period). Does anyone assign students to
read/listen
> > to these oral histories, or oral histories from other sources? What do
you
> > ask students to do with them? Do you as teachers use them for your own
> > preparation?
> >
> > Just curious.
> >
> > Ellen
> > --
> > Ellen Noonan
> > American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
> > The Graduate Center, City University of New York
> > 365 Fifth Avenue, Room 7301.11
> > New York, NY  10016
> > enoonan@gc.cuny.edu
> > http://www.ashp.cuny.edu
> >
> > This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
> > http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S.
History.
>
> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
>
>

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Fri, 21 Feb 2003 00:10:49 EST
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Linda Shopes 
Subject:      more . . .
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              boundary="part1_aa.18afd100.2b870ed9_boundary"

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Thanks to all for the recent flurry of converstation - I guess our East Coast
colleagues are digging out from the snow.  Before responding to these though,
I first want to thank Tom Murray and Aurora Levins Morales for taking the
time to respond to my earlier posting with such detail and thoughfulness.
They remind us, I think, that who we interview and what we interview them
about depends on the purpose of our project; and make clear that in designing
projects we need to negotiate a course between a falsely simplistic "all
point of view" approach to oral history - oral history projects are often
driven by a point of view, an agenda, as Ms. Levins Morales reminds us - and
one that would neglect to talk with individuals who might challenge - or at
least complicate - that point of view.   In fact, I think interviews with
narrators who think differently from the interviewer often result in the
richest narratives, if points of difference can become points of creative
questioning.  And, without being too glib here, I think Mr. Murray's and Ms.
Levins Morales's responses  illustrate the point that it takes two or three
cuts through a topic in an interview to really get to the heart of the
matter.   Mr. Murray's comments about interveiwing Vietnam Vets also reminds
me that Mike Frisch has a wonderful essay in A Shared Authority about the TV
documentary on Vietnam of some years ago, in which he disects the implicit
bias in a presumably "all points of view" use of oral history.

About using exisitng interviews in history and related courses - good point!
 Donna Sharra points out that the oral histories from Hard Times that she
used in a discussion of the Depression linger is students' memories.  This
typical, I think;   students - people - are drawn into the narrative quality
of interviews - they are often good stories.  And they are stories about
individuals, not historical abstractions.

Yet isn't history about generalizations?  How do we go from the individual to
the general, without erasing the individual?  John Spencer - harking back to
my earlier point - notes that narrators often disagree.  It seems to me the
question for us to ask, in classrooms and in communities, is why individuals
hold the views they do, how to explain these differences.  And what sort of
explanation can we develop that holds all (well, maybe not all) these
different views within a larger interpretive frame, that creates a coherent
historical explanation of the topic at hand that explains the disparate
views.

Carole Adams's comments about using slave narratives in class brings to mind
one of my favorite exercises, taken from Davidson and Lytle's After the Fact:
The Art of Historical Detection.  Davidson and Lytle identify two interviews
with the same ex-slave in the WPA collection - one done by a white
interveiwer, one by a black.  They are somewhat different in substance;
vastly different in tone.  It's interesting to get students to decide which
is which - many invariably get it wrong, reflecting today's racial climate, I
think, which opens up a whole discussing of the way "the present" impinges
upon our read of any source.

How else to people use existing interviews to teach history?  And any
community/public historians out there?  How is oral history a part of your
work?  And for those concerned with the accuracy of narrators' recall -
subjectivity notwithstanding - how can we help ensure full, thoughtful
responses on the part of narrators, try to get it right?

Linda Shopes

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

--part1_aa.18afd100.2b870ed9_boundary
Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Thanks to all for the recent flurry of converstation -=
 I guess our East Coast colleagues are digging out from the snow.  Befo=
re responding to these though, I first want to thank Tom Murray and Aurora L=
evins Morales for taking the time to respond to my earlier posting with such=
 detail and thoughfulness.  They remind us, I think, that who we interv=
iew and what we interview them about depends on the purpose of our project;=20=
and make clear that in designing projects we need to negotiate a course betw=
een a falsely simplistic "all point of view" approach to oral history - oral=
 history projects are often driven by a point of view, an agenda, as Ms. Lev=
ins Morales reminds us - and one that would neglect to talk with individuals=
 who might challenge - or at least complicate - that point of view. &nb=
sp; In fact, I think interviews with narrators who think differently from th=
e interviewer often result in the richest narratives, if points of differenc=
e can become points of creative questioning.  And, without being too gl=
ib here, I think Mr. Murray's and Ms. Levins Morales's responses  illus=
trate the point that it takes two or three cuts through a topic in an interv=
iew to really get to the heart of the matter.   Mr. Murray's comme=
nts about interveiwing Vietnam Vets also reminds me that Mike Frisch has a w=
onderful essay in A Shared Authority about the TV documentary on Viet=
nam of some years ago, in which he disects the implicit bias in a presumably=
 "all points of view" use of oral history.



About using exisitng interviews in history and related courses - good point!=
   Donna Sharra points out that the oral histories from Hard Ti=
mes that she used in a discussion of the Depression linger is students'=20=
memories.  This typical, I think;   students - people - are d=
rawn into the narrative quality of interviews - they are often good stories.=
  And they are stories about individuals, not historical abstractions.&=
nbsp;    



Yet isn't history about generalizations?  How do we go from the individ=
ual to the general, without erasing the individual?  John Spencer - har=
king back to my earlier point - notes that narrators often disagree.  I=
t seems to me the question for us to ask, in classrooms and in communities,=20=
is why individuals hold the views they do, how to explain these differences.=
  And what sort of explanation can we develop that holds all (well, may=
be not all) these different views within a larger interpretive frame, that c=
reates a coherent historical explanation of the topic at hand that explains=20=
the disparate views.   



Carole Adams's comments about using slave narratives in class brings to mind=
 one of my favorite exercises, taken from Davidson and Lytle's After the=20=
Fact: The Art of Historical Detection.  Davidson and Lytle identify=
 two interviews with the same ex-slave in the WPA collection - one done by a=
 white interveiwer, one by a black.  They are somewhat different in sub=
stance; vastly different in tone.  It's interesting to get students to=20=
decide which is which - many invariably get it wrong, reflecting today's rac=
ial climate, I think, which opens up a whole discussing of the way "the pres=
ent" impinges upon our read of any source.  

  

How else to people use existing interviews to teach history?  And any c=
ommunity/public historians out there?  How is oral history a part of yo=
ur work?  And for those concerned with the accuracy of narrators' recal=
l - subjectivity notwithstanding - how can we help ensure full, thoughtful r=
esponses on the part of narrators, try to get it right?



Linda Shopes


This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
--part1_aa.18afd100.2b870ed9_boundary--
=========================================================================
Date:         Fri, 21 Feb 2003 12:42:28 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Bea Roeder 
Subject:      Re: more . . .
In-Reply-To:  
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0-1672955043-1045860148=:90627"

--0-1672955043-1045860148=:90627
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii


I, too, a folklorist, have appreciated the thoughtful responses to this forum.

I'm embarking on my seventh or so community oral history project, but this one is temporarily stymied by what seem to be too many cooks stirring the broth.  Is there such a thing as an agreed-upon job description for an oral history project director?

At the steering committee's request, I wrote up a detailed job description and schedule of activities, since they couldn't quite believe it would take the project director 40 days to work with volunteers to complete a set of 10-15 interviews, including logs and transcriptions (they picked the number ten; I would have shot higher), publicize the process and plan a final "harvest" celebration. Right now it looks like half my time will go to revising the job description--which may prove worthwhile, since it seems several issues need to be talked through, especially since most community members are volunteering their time and want to define what "billable" time is.

It would be easier to do, log and transcribe the interviews myself, but, as this forum has pointed out, much of the value of oral history is in the DOING: participating in the process and getting to really know other members of one's own community.

Can anyone comment on how to handle such mundane-to-important portions of an oral history project as time spent in phone calls and other correspondence,  planning and executing such things as publicity, seeing that grant requirements are met, and stepping in when a volunteer can't finish what they started?


Bea Roeder, Folklorist    bearoeder@yahoo.com
Colorado Springs & Denver, Colorado

303 623-1527



---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
--0-1672955043-1045860148=:90627
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii

I, too, a folklorist, have appreciated the thoughtful responses to this forum.
I'm embarking on my seventh or so community oral history project, but this one is temporarily stymied by what seem to be too many cooks stirring the broth.  Is there such a thing as an agreed-upon job description for an oral history project director? 
At the steering committee's request, I wrote up a detailed job description and schedule of activities, since they couldn't quite believe it would take the project director 40 days to work with volunteers to complete a set of 10-15 interviews, including logs and transcriptions (they picked the number ten; I would have shot higher), publicize the process and plan a final "harvest" celebration. Right now it looks like half my time will go to revising the job description--which may prove worthwhile, since it seems several issues need to be talked through, especially since most community members are volunteering their time and want to define what "billable" time is.  
It would be easier to do, log and transcribe the interviews myself, but, as this forum has pointed out, much of the value of oral history is in the DOING: participating in the process and getting to really know other members of one's own community.
Can anyone comment on how to handle such mundane-to-important portions of an oral history project as time spent in phone calls and other correspondence,  planning and executing such things as publicity, seeing that grant requirements are met, and stepping in when a volunteer can't finish what they started?


Bea Roeder, Folklorist    bearoeder@yahoo.com
Colorado Springs & Denver, Colorado
303 623-1527

Do you Yahoo!?

Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
--0-1672955043-1045860148=:90627--
=========================================================================
Date:         Sat, 22 Feb 2003 00:54:41 EST
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Aurora Levins Morales 
Subject:      Re: more . . .
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Dear Bea--
    Oh, yes!  Been there!  My first project the funder was the board of a=20
community organization that had never funded anything before and couldn't=20
believe that interviews took as long as they did to set up, do, and summariz=
e=20
(without even full transcription).  I kept a meticulous log of everything I=20
did for a few weeks, and shared it with them. Something like this: Fourth=20
phone call to Vargas family, talked to a different niece or nephew each time=
.=20
The 90 minute drive to home of Maldonados, who insisted on feeding me before=
=20
the interview, which is an important part of the process, at least in Latino=
=20
homes, and then a 3 hour interview and listing the most significant family=20
photos to copy at a future date, which includes listening to the stories=20
attached to each one and trying to get precise dates and places, then the 90=
=20
minute drive home, typing up my field notes, making calls to six other=20
potential subjects, three of which involved explaining in detail who I was,=20
what the project was about, why I thought their stories mattered, asking som=
e=20
preinterview questions, hearing about rivalries between community=20
organizations that would clearly impact my access to some informants if I=20
wasn't careful, trying to stop the pre-interview from becoming an unrecorded=
=20
oral history on the spot and then trying to pin down a specific time for=20
theinterview and explaining that it really would take severalhours, even if=20
they didn;t think they hadthat much to say,--and then lying down to recover=20
from having absorbed an eighty year life story in several large gulps. =20
    And that was when I wasn't supervising or training anyone.  It's hard to=
=20
explain the kind of skills you need to acquire to be a good interviewer. =20
It's one of those jobs that looks easy until you try it.  The youth I traine=
d=20
seemed to think it would be a breeze until they did their first practice=20
interview and realized the it took a lot of attention to draw someone out,=20
keep them on topic, not forget to get details, and cope with the sudden=20
revelation of a family tragedy, with all the emotion that entails. =20
Fortunately when I was training, I worked for museum professionals and didn'=
t=20
have to justify my hours.  I found that telling a lot of stories to the=20
community organization about what it really takes to collect ten oral=20
histories and document them properly, and presenting them with a log early=20
on, helped them understand that I was actually working far more hours than I=
=20
was paid for.   Good luck!  Aurora Levins Morales


****************************************************************************=
**

***********
Praise for  Remedios: Stories of Earth and Iron from the History of=20
Puertorrique=F1as=20
by Aurora Levins Morales, South End Press 2001

"Captivating language and enticing cadence are characteristics of the =20
enchanting prose Levins Morales employs in this gathering of uniquely=20
realized vignettes...Exciting melange of stories ultimately affirming the=20
empowerment of women."   Booklist

"There is no other book like Remedios.  It is history, anthropology, poetry,=
=20
and myth; it is a song and a prayer. Aurora Levins Morales is a Jewish Latin=
a=20
curandera who embraces diverse legacies with passion and eloquence. In=20
stories so beautifully told they soar off the page...she offers us remedies=20
that heal our bodies and souls and feed our spirits of our many forgotten=20
ancestors." Ruth Behar, author of The Vulnerable Observer

And for Telling To Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios by the Latina Feminist=20
Group (Duke, 2001)

"Telling to Live may be one of the most important books published in the las=
t=20
few decades. Latinas collectively have not had a book like this before that=20
features so many different backgrounds and cultures...The inclusion of all=20
these mix-and-match  identifications is what makes this book required readin=
g=20
in women's studies classes all across the globe." Jocelyn Climent, in Bust

Coming soon!  Shema: Writings on Love and War is an original and probing=20
exploration of integrity and betrayal, violence and reconciliation,=20
sexuality, masculinity, shame and power, from the global to the intimately=20
personal, as she weaves together war in the Middle East with the sudden=20
disintegration of her marriage as the result of her husband's midlife crisis=
=20
affair with a much younger woman. Spoken word CD and book. CD available now=20
at RemediosCenter@aol.com

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Sat, 22 Feb 2003 12:44:05 -0200
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Donna Sharer 
Subject:      Re: more . . .
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=--__JNP_000_025a.15c8.4e6c

This message is in MIME format.  Since your mail reader does not understand
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.

----__JNP_000_025a.15c8.4e6c
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

I've appreciated this forum.  There aren't other teachers where I work
using oral history so I don't have anyone to "bounce" around ideas.
Couple of questions - What is the difference between an interview and an
oral history interview?  For example, I have two speakers coming to class
in March who will be interviewed about our school district's
desegregation policy in the late 1970s / early 1980s (Philadelphia, PA).
We will also interview 8 - 9 teachers who were at our school (a large
neighborhood high school)  for 25 or more years about their memories of
how the desegregation policy was enforced / accepted / not accepted /
etc. by staff and students.  (I'm trying to find some alumni from the
time period but haven't gotten anywhere...)  Are these oral history
interviews or interviews?  Is oral history when it is personal /
narrative vs. informational?  One of the experts coming in March is a
lawyer who has worked on the issue for over 20 years.  I'm sure he has
personal stories  - not just knowledge of the legal decisions.

Though I know textbook history is about generalizations, what often
"hooks" students is the personal.  For example, I'm doing a unit on U.S.
expansion / colonization in the 19th / early 20th century and connecting
it with current U.S. policy regarding Iraq.  We can list the pro / con
arguments re: the Mexican American War but what "hooks" students is the
personal - how it affected the lives of real people in real ways.  The
personal also is full of ambiguity and contradictions but I also think
that "hooks" students.  Our lives are full of ambiguity and
contradictions.  What do other teachers / historians do to use the "hook"
of the personal to move students to the generalizations?  How much time
do you spend looking at what influences the person's opinions / memories?
 (For example,  when we interview teachers regarding the school's
desegregation policies, do I discuss the ethnicity the teachers with the
students if there appears to be a difference in responses from Euro vs.
African American teachers?  The School Dist. also had a policy of "racial
balance" for staff - some of the teachers left our school for 1 year
because there were too many Euro-Am. teachers.  That might influence
their memories.  Do we need to know this? )  If we interview alumni,
should we know if the students attended because of desegregation policies
or it was their neighborhood high school?  Do we need to consider if the
student was active in extra curricular activities? (This probably
influences their memories.)  I don't want to psychoanalyze each
respondent - how do we use the oral histories / memories to find "truths"
while recognizing there isn't necessarily one broad generalization
regarding how the desegregation worked?

thanks

Donna Sharer

On Fri, 21 Feb 2003 00:10:49 EST Linda Shopes  writes:
Thanks to all for the recent flurry of converstation - I guess our East
Coast colleagues are digging out from the snow.  Before responding to
these though, I first want to thank Tom Murray and Aurora Levins Morales
for taking the time to respond to my earlier posting with such detail and
thoughfulness.  They remind us, I think, that who we interview and what
we interview them about depends on the purpose of our project; and make
clear that in designing projects we need to negotiate a course between a
falsely simplistic "all point of view" approach to oral history - oral
history projects are often driven by a point of view, an agenda, as Ms.
Levins Morales reminds us - and one that would neglect to talk with
individuals who might challenge - or at least complicate - that point of
view.   In fact, I think interviews with narrators who think differently
from the interviewer often result in the richest narratives, if points of
difference can become points of creative questioning.  And, without being
too glib here, I think Mr. Murray's and Ms. Levins Morales's responses
illustrate the point that it takes two or three cuts through a topic in
an interview to really get to the heart of the matter.   Mr. Murray's
comments about interveiwing Vietnam Vets also reminds me that Mike Frisch
has a wonderful essay in A Shared Authority about the TV documentary on
Vietnam of some years ago, in which he disects the implicit bias in a
presumably "all points of view" use of oral history.

About using exisitng interviews in history and related courses - good
point!   Donna Sharra points out that the oral histories from Hard Times
that  she used in a discussion of the Depression linger is students'
memories.  This typical, I think;   students - people - are drawn into
the narrative quality of interviews - they are often good stories.  And
they are stories about individuals, not historical abstractions.

Yet isn't history about generalizations?  How do we go from the
individual to the general, without erasing the individual?  John Spencer
- harking back to my earlier point - notes that narrators often disagree.
 It seems to me the question for us to ask, in classrooms and in
communities, is why individuals hold the views they do, how to explain
these differences.  And what sort of explanation can we develop that
holds all (well, maybe not all) these different views within a larger
interpretive frame, that creates a coherent historical explanation of the
topic at hand that explains the disparate views.

Carole Adams's comments about using slave narratives in class brings to
mind one of my favorite exercises, taken from Davidson and Lytle's After
the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection.  Davidson and Lytle identify
two interviews with the same ex-slave in the WPA collection - one done by
a white interveiwer, one by a black.  They are somewhat different in
substance; vastly different in tone.  It's interesting to get students to
decide which is which - many invariably get it wrong, reflecting today's
racial climate, I think, which opens up a whole discussing of the way
"the present" impinges upon our read of any source.

How else to people use existing interviews to teach history?  And any
community/public historians out there?  How is oral history a part of
your work?  And for those concerned with the accuracy of narrators'
recall - subjectivity notwithstanding - how can we help ensure full,
thoughtful responses on the part of narrators, try to get it right?

Linda Shopes
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S.
History.

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
----__JNP_000_025a.15c8.4e6c
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable






I've appreciated this forum.  There aren't other teachers where I=
 work=20
using oral history so I don't have anyone to "bounce" around ideas.
Couple of questions - What is the difference between an interview and =
an=20
oral history interview?  For example, I have two speakers coming to =
class=20
in March who will be interviewed about our school district's desegregation=
=20
policy in the late 1970s / early 1980s (Philadelphia, PA).  We will =
also=20
interview 8 - 9 teachers who were at our school (a large neighborhood high=
=20
school)  for 25 or more years about their memories of how the =
desegregation=20
policy was enforced / accepted / not accepted / etc. by staff and=20
students.  (I'm trying to find some alumni from the time period but =
haven't=20
gotten anywhere...)  Are these oral history interviews or interviews?&=
nbsp;=20
Is oral history when it is personal / narrative vs. informational?  =
One of=20
the experts coming in March is a lawyer who has worked on the issue for =
over 20=20
years.  I'm sure he has personal stories  - not just knowledge of=
 the=20
legal decisions.  
 
Though I know textbook history is about generalizations, what often "=
hooks"=20
students is the personal.  For example, I'm doing a unit on U.S. =
expansion=20
/ colonization in the 19th / early 20th century and connecting it with =
current=20
U.S. policy regarding Iraq.  We can list the pro / con arguments re: =
the=20
Mexican American War but what "hooks" students is the personal - how it =
affected=20
the lives of real people in real ways.  The personal also is full of=20
ambiguity and contradictions but I also think that "hooks" students.  =
Our=20
lives are full of ambiguity and contradictions.  What do other =
teachers /=20
historians do to use the "hook" of the personal to move students to the=20
generalizations?  How much time do you spend looking at what =
influences the=20
person's opinions / memories?  (For example,  when we interview=20
teachers regarding the school's desegregation policies, do I discuss the=20
ethnicity the teachers with the students if there appears to be a =
difference in=20
responses from Euro vs. African American teachers?  The School Dist. =
also=20
had a policy of "racial balance" for staff - some of the teachers left our=
=20
school for 1 year because there were too many Euro-Am. teachers.  That=
=20
might influence their memories.  Do we need to know this? )  If =
we=20
interview alumni, should we know if the students attended because of=20
desegregation policies or it was their neighborhood high school?  Do =
we=20
need to consider if the student was active in extra curricular activities? =
(This=20
probably influences their memories.)  I don't want to psychoanalyze =
each=20
respondent - how do we use the oral histories / memories to find "truths" =
while=20
recognizing there isn't necessarily one broad generalization regarding how =
the=20
desegregation worked?     
 
thanks
 
Donna Sharer
 
On Fri, 21 Feb 2003 00:10:49 EST Linda Shopes <Lshopes@AOL.COM> writes:

  
Thanks to all for the recent flurry of converstation=
 - I=20
  guess our East Coast colleagues are digging out from the snow.  =
Before=20
  responding to these though, I first want to thank Tom Murray and Aurora =
Levins=20
  Morales for taking the time to respond to my earlier posting with such =
detail=20
  and thoughfulness.  They remind us, I think, that who we interview =
and=20
  what we interview them about depends on the purpose of our project; and =
make=20
  clear that in designing projects we need to negotiate a course between a=
=20
  falsely simplistic "all point of view" approach to oral history - oral =
history=20
  projects are often driven by a point of view, an agenda, as Ms. Levins =
Morales=20
  reminds us - and one that would neglect to talk with individuals who =
might=20
  challenge - or at least complicate - that point of view.   In =
fact,=20
  I think interviews with narrators who think differently from the =
interviewer=20
  often result in the richest narratives, if points of difference can =
become=20
  points of creative questioning.  And, without being too glib here, I=
=20
  think Mr. Murray's and Ms. Levins Morales's responses  illustrate =
the=20
  point that it takes two or three cuts through a topic in an interview to=
=20
  really get to the heart of the matter.   Mr. Murray's comments =
about=20
  interveiwing Vietnam Vets also reminds me that Mike Frisch has a =
wonderful=20
  essay in A Shared Authority about the TV documentary on Vietnam of=
 some=20
  years ago, in which he disects the implicit bias in a presumably "all =
points=20
  of view" use of oral history.

About using exisitng interviews in=20
  history and related courses - good point!   Donna Sharra points=
 out=20
  that the oral histories from Hard Times that  she used in a=20
  discussion of the Depression linger is students' memories.  This =
typical,=20
  I think;   students - people - are drawn into the narrative =
quality=20
  of interviews - they are often good stories.  And they are stories =
about=20
  individuals, not historical abstractions.     
Yet=20
  isn't history about generalizations?  How do we go from the =
individual to=20
  the general, without erasing the individual?  John Spencer - harking=
 back=20
  to my earlier point - notes that narrators often disagree.  It seems=
 to=20
  me the question for us to ask, in classrooms and in communities, is why=20
  individuals hold the views they do, how to explain these differences.&=
nbsp;=20
  And what sort of explanation can we develop that holds all (well, maybe =
not=20
  all) these different views within a larger interpretive frame, that =
creates a=20
  coherent historical explanation of the topic at hand that explains the=20
  disparate views.   

Carole Adams's comments about using =
slave=20
  narratives in class brings to mind one of my favorite exercises, taken =
from=20
  Davidson and Lytle's After the Fact: The Art of Historical=20
  Detection.  Davidson and Lytle identify two interviews with the =
same=20
  ex-slave in the WPA collection - one done by a white interveiwer, one by =
a=20
  black.  They are somewhat different in substance; vastly different =
in=20
  tone.  It's interesting to get students to decide which is which - =
many=20
  invariably get it wrong, reflecting today's racial climate, I think, =
which=20
  opens up a whole discussing of the way "the present" impinges upon our =
read of=20
  any source.  
  
How else to people use existing =
interviews to=20
  teach history?  And any community/public historians out there? =
 How=20
  is oral history a part of your work?  And for those concerned with =
the=20
  accuracy of narrators' recall - subjectivity notwithstanding - how can we=
 help=20
  ensure full, thoughtful responses on the part of narrators, try to get it=
=20
  right?

Linda Shopes
This forum is sponsored by History=20
  Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for =
more=20
  resources for teaching U.S. History.
  
 
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

----__JNP_000_025a.15c8.4e6c--
=========================================================================
Date:         Sun, 23 Feb 2003 11:38:19 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Barbara Egypt 
Subject:      Re: using oral history rather than creating it
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Hello, all -
Thanks for all the postings! As a teacher of African American Studies I have always used the Oral Histories of former slaves, and more recently those relating to Women's Issues. The slave histories were taken down by the WPA during the 1930's in an effort to document what really happend. However, believe it or not, there were several interviews wherein the interviewers were told "slavery was wonderful." In B. A. Botkins, Lay My Burden Down: An Oral History of Slavery, one woman related, "I could tell you about it all day, but I could never tell you the awfullness of it." Unfortunately, our schools fail to use these histories for the most part. And many kids grow up thinking that slavery was "just wonderful." Recent scholarship has uncovered literally hundreds of slave oral documents.Perhaps Americans (Blacks as well as Whites) just don't want to analyze some of these "histories" and to confront the implications therein. "Also, I understand from my current reading of Ray A. Young Bear's. Black Eagle Child, that there have been efforts to record the lives of Native Americans. I attended a two-day seminar a couple of years ago on Oral History at the College of New Rochelle and from that created a curriculum to help students use oral history. I have taught both high school and university.Barbara A. Egypt begypt@yahoo.com.
 "Noonan, Ellen"  wrote:There has been great discussion so far on the oral history projects people
are doing with students and the many complexities of practice and
interpretation that they involve. But I'm curious about how people teach
with existing oral history accounts. For example, we have 150 oral histories
posted in the Many Pasts section of History Matters (some quite recently
added on the post WWII period). Does anyone assign students to read/listen
to these oral histories, or oral histories from other sources? What do you
ask students to do with them? Do you as teachers use them for your own
preparation?

Just curious.

Ellen
--
Ellen Noonan
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue, Room 7301.11
New York, NY 10016
enoonan@gc.cuny.edu
http://www.ashp.cuny.edu

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Hello, all -
Thanks for all the postings! As a teacher of African American Studies I have always used the Oral Histories of former slaves, and more recently those relating to Women's Issues. The slave histories were taken down by the WPA during the 1930's in an effort to document what really happend. However, believe it or not, there were several interviews wherein the interviewers were told "slavery was wonderful." In B. A. Botkins, Lay My Burden Down: An Oral History of Slavery, one woman related, "I could tell you about it all day, but I could never tell you the awfullness of it." Unfortunately, our schools fail to use these histories for the most part. And many kids grow up thinking that slavery was "just wonderful." Recent scholarship has uncovered literally hundreds of slave oral documents.Perhaps Americans (Blacks as well as Whites) just don't want to analyze some of these "histories" and to confront the implications therein. "Also, I understand from my current reading of Ray A. Young Bear's. Black Eagle Child, that there have been efforts to record the lives of Native Americans. I attended a two-day seminar a couple of years ago on Oral History at the College of New Rochelle and from that created a curriculum to help students use oral history. I have taught both high school and university.Barbara A. Egypt begypt@yahoo.com.
 "Noonan, Ellen" <ENoonan@GC.CUNY.EDU> wrote:
There has been great discussion so far on the oral history projects people
are doing with students and the many complexities of practice and
interpretation that they involve. But I'm curious about how people teach
with existing oral history accounts. For example, we have 150 oral histories
posted in the Many Pasts section of History Matters (some quite recently
added on the post WWII period). Does anyone assign students to read/listen
to these oral histories, or oral histories from other sources? What do you
ask students to do with them? Do you as teachers use them for your own
preparation?

Just curious.

Ellen
--
Ellen Noonan
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue, Room 7301.11
New York, NY 10016
enoonan@gc.cuny.edu
http://www.ashp.cuny.edu

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

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Date:         Sun, 23 Feb 2003 20:13:51 -0500
Reply-To:     cpitton@ae21.org
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Charity Pitton 
Subject:      Using oral history, teen savvy, and generalizations
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I work for a high-school distance learning project. The majority of my
students come from low-income families and are African-American. They
have limited resources, and we do as much as possible without texts.
(The money goes to a computer and an internet connection instead.)

I want to applaud those who have worked to get oral histories - or any
primary source - available on the internet. Sites like the American
Memory Project not only bring richness to existing US history texts, but
have been the main resource for students such as mine. I have the
privilege/challenge of using the primary sources I find on the internet
to a great extent. Perhaps because of this, I have not heard one of them
refer to slavery as "wonderful." (Also perhaps because they are
predominantly African-American.)

I have noticed some back-and-forth discussion about making sure students
understand they can't take everything in these oral histories at face
value. I think teenagers pretty much get that already. They're skeptical
of everything, and pretty savvy in their ability to see through
someone's agenda. And in my experience, if you invite them to be
skeptical of the stuff they have to read for their homework, they'll
jump at the chance. A few have needed prodding to start thinking, but
most of them love the opportunity to be critical. I haven't needed to
remind them more than once or twice that the interviewer or interviewee
may see only one version of the story.

FWIW, in terms of trying to get them to the generalizations, rather than
just focusing on the individual's story, I use a deductive, rather than
inductive process: Here's the generalization; here are ten oral
histories about this generalization. Which support the generalization,
which don't support it, and why do you think we still believe that
generalization to be true if there are oral histories showing the
opposite? All of my classes have needed some of that process before I
could switch them to inductive reasoning, and some I was never able to
switch. If they weren't able to move from the oral histories to the
generalizations - if they couldn't use an inductive process effectively
- then I kept teaching the generalizations and used the oral histories
to "liven them up," using a deductive process instead.

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=========================================================================
Date:         Sun, 23 Feb 2003 20:27:29 EST
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Cathy Stephenson 
Subject:      Re: using oral history rather than creating it
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Greetings Barbara,
I am so pleased and grateful that you offer oral history experiences to
students focused on slaves voices, and am also interested in the voices of
Native American Women. Do you happen to have any books or websites where one
could go to for further education in these oral histories? I am looking to
expand my education since I was saturated with white male perspectives
through my public school education. I am 45 years old and feel so deprived
concerning the many voices of history in this country I was born and raised
in.
Grateful and In Spirit,
Cathy Stephenson, Union Carpenter, 14 years

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Greetings Barbara,

I am so pleased and grateful that you offer oral history experiences to=20=
students focused on slaves voices, and am also interested in the voices of N=
ative American Women. Do you happen to have any books or websites where one=20=
could go to for further education in these oral histories? I am looking to e=
xpand my education since I was saturated with white male perspectives throug=
h my public school education. I am 45 years old and feel so deprived concern=
ing the many voices of history in this country I was born and raised in.

Grateful and In Spirit,

Cathy Stephenson, Union Carpenter, 14 years
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

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Date:         Mon, 24 Feb 2003 11:33:45 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "Ritchie, Don (Secretary)" 
Subject:      Re: using oral history rather than creating it
MIME-Version: 1.0
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        charset="iso-8859-1"
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A new and worthwhile web site dealing with the slave narratives is the =
Time Classroom on the recent HBO documentary, "Unchained Memories: =
Readings from the Slave Narratives," which offers a classroom guide and =
links to other related sites: =
http://www.time.com/time/classroom/unchained/resources.html
=20
Don Ritchie

-----Original Message-----
From: Cathy Stephenson [mailto:CATSTEP16@AOL.COM]
Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2003 8:27 PM
To: ORALHISTORYFORUM@ASHP.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: using oral history rather than creating it


Greetings Barbara,=20
I am so pleased and grateful that you offer oral history experiences to =
students focused on slaves voices, and am also interested in the voices =
of Native American Women. Do you happen to have any books or websites =
where one could go to for further education in these oral histories? I =
am looking to expand my education since I was saturated with white male =
perspectives through my public school education. I am 45 years old and =
feel so deprived concerning the many voices of history in this country I =
was born and raised in.=20
Grateful and In Spirit,=20
Cathy Stephenson, Union Carpenter, 14 years This forum is sponsored by =
History Matters--please visit our Web site at =
http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. =
History.=20


This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

------_=_NextPart_001_01C2DC22.80004B2B
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        charset="iso-8859-1"
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A new=20
and worthwhile web site dealing with the slave narratives is the =
Time=20
Classroom on the recent HBO documentary, "Unchained Memories: Readings =
from the=20
Slave Narratives," which offers a classroom guide and links to =
other=20
related sites: http=
://www.time.com/time/classroom/unchained/resources.html=

 
Don=20
Ritchie

  
-----Original Message-----
From: Cathy Stephenson=20
  [mailto:CATSTEP16@AOL.COM]
Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2003 =
8:27=20
  PM
To: =
ORALHISTORYFORUM@ASHP.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject:=20
  Re: using oral history rather than creating =
it

Greetings Barbara, 
I am so =
pleased and=20
  grateful that you offer oral history experiences to students focused =
on slaves=20
  voices, and am also interested in the voices of Native American Women. =
Do you=20
  happen to have any books or websites where one could go to for further =

  education in these oral histories? I am looking to expand my education =
since I=20
  was saturated with white male perspectives through my public school =
education.=20
  I am 45 years old and feel so deprived concerning the many voices of =
history=20
  in this country I was born and raised in. 
Grateful and In Spirit,=20
  
Cathy Stephenson, Union Carpenter, 14 years This forum is =
sponsored=20
  by History Matters--please visit our Web site at =
http://historymatters.gmu.edu=20
  for more resources for teaching U.S. History. =

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

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Date:         Mon, 24 Feb 2003 17:31:19 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Lisa Rubens 
Subject:      oral history and video "oral" histories

I hope I'm not repeating a thread of discussion, but do you have a strong opinion about the strength and weakness of
 video oral histories?  Our office increasingly is using video and when used to also capture a setting -tour a work plac
e, look at scrap books, etc- it's terrific.  Then there is the position that Sherna Gluck takes, as exemplified in the archives at California State
University at Fullerton, that only the aural document should be available.

On another note, you asked about cold war sources. I wonder how the film Salt of the Earth resonates today? There are two websites regarding
this l954 film: one on the suppression of the film; another on the 50th anniversary of the making of the film, held next week end at in Santa Fe.
Google can link to these sites.

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
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Date:         Mon, 24 Feb 2003 17:23:53 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Barbara Egypt 
Subject:      Re: oral history and video "oral" histories
In-Reply-To:  
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Lisa-
Using videos is okay. Another point may be getting the permission of the person interviewed. We developed a form for this. People may not generally want their personal image to be available: sometimes their relatives might object. Once it's done it's out there and it's accessible unless there are certain protocols in place.begypt@yahoo.com.
 Lisa Rubens  wrote:I hope I'm not repeating a thread of discussion, but do you have a strong opinion about the strength and weakness of
video oral histories? Our office increasingly is using video and when used to also capture a setting -tour a work plac
e, look at scrap books, etc- it's terrific. Then there is the position that Sherna Gluck takes, as exemplified in the archives at California State
University at Fullerton, that only the aural document should be available.

On another note, you asked about cold war sources. I wonder how the film Salt of the Earth resonates today? There are two websites regarding
this l954 film: one on the suppression of the film; another on the 50th anniversary of the making of the film, held next week end at in Santa Fe.
Google can link to these sites.

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.


---------------------------------
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Lisa-
Using videos is okay. Another point may be getting the permission of the person interviewed. We developed a form for this. People may not generally want their personal image to be available: sometimes their relatives might object. Once it's done it's out there and it's accessible unless there are certain protocols in place.begypt@yahoo.com.
 Lisa Rubens <lrubens@SOCRATES.BERKELEY.EDU> wrote:
I hope I'm not repeating a thread of discussion, but do you have a strong opinion about the strength and weakness of
video oral histories? Our office increasingly is using video and when used to also capture a setting -tour a work plac
e, look at scrap books, etc- it's terrific. Then there is the position that Sherna Gluck takes, as exemplified in the archives at California State
University at Fullerton, that only the aural document should be available.

On another note, you asked about cold war sources. I wonder how the film Salt of the Earth resonates today? There are two websites regarding
this l954 film: one on the suppression of the film; another on the 50th anniversary of the making of the film, held next week end at in Santa Fe.
Google can link to these sites.

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

Do you Yahoo!?

Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more
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Date:         Mon, 24 Feb 2003 21:01:52 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "Noonan, Ellen" 
Subject:      FW: Oral Histories of Native American Women
In-Reply-To:  <20030225013842.91445.qmail@web20805.mail.yahoo.com>
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----------
From: Barbara Egypt 
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 17:38:42 -0800 (PST)
To: enoonan@GC.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Oral Histories of Native American Women


Ms. Noonan -

Someone asked me about Native American Women and I inadvertently deleted
the sender. The book I referenced is American Indian Women Telling Their
Lives, Gretchen M. Bataille and Kathleen Mullen Sands. 1984, University
of Nebraska Press.  I picked it up second-hand and it may not be
available now. However, there is a great biblio there, and it would be a
good start.  e.g. From the biblio: Medicine, Bea (Sioux) "The
Anthropologist as the Indian's Image Maker."  'Medicine discusses how
the Indian image has been created by outsiders and that when the Indian
presents his or her own history there are accusations of subjectivity or
ethnocentrism.'  For anyone interested in that topic (Native American
Women) there is a great deal of material today, well, at least much more
than there was nearly three decades ago.. begypt@yahoo.com.



  _____


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----------

From: Barbara Egypt <begypt@yahoo.com>

Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 17:38:42 -0800 (PST)

To: enoonan@GC.CUNY.EDU

Subject: Oral Histories of Native American Women





Ms. Noonan - 



Someone asked me about Native American Women and I inadvertently =
deleted the sender. The book I referenced is American Indian Women =
Telling Their Lives, Gretchen M. Bataille and Kathleen Mullen =
Sands. 1984, University of Nebraska Press.  I picked it up =
second-hand and it may not be available now. However, there is a great =
biblio there, and it would be a good start.  e.g. From the biblio: =
Medicine, Bea (Sioux) "The Anthropologist as the Indian's Image =
Maker."  'Medicine discusses how the Indian image has been =
created by outsiders and that when the Indian presents his or her own =
history there are accusations of subjectivity or ethnocentrism.' =
 For anyone interested in that topic (Native American Women) there =
is a great deal of material today, well, at least much more than there =
was nearly three decades ago.. begypt@yahoo.com.







Do you Yahoo!?

Yahoo! Tax Center =
<http://rd.yahoo.com/finance/mailtagline/*http://taxes.yahoo.com/>=
  - forms, calculators, tips, and more 




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Date:         Mon, 24 Feb 2003 22:55:18 EST
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Linda Shopes 
Subject:      even more on oral history
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Thanks for all the postings over the last few days.  The various and creative
ways people are using oral history in classrooms and communities are really
quite exciting, and fascinating to learn about.   Clearly oral history does
hook students (as Donna Sharrer says); clearly it opens up all sorts
interesting questions about how people - and historians - make sense of the
past.  And thanks so much to C. Pitton for reminding us that it often doesn't
take much to get students to think critically, to figure out where someone is
coming from.   Pitton's deductive/inductive approach to connecting individual
stories to broader generalization also seems useful.

There's been some very useful exchange of information about resources.  Keep
it coming, and let me add just a couple of items:  For Native American oral
histories, look at the website of the South Dakota Oral History Center at the
University of S. Dakota at http://usd.edu/iais/oralhist/index.html.  And
check out the material at the University of Alaska Rasmuson Library Oral
History Center at http://www.uaf.edu/library/oralhistory/index.html.

A couple of more threads to pick up on:  Barbara Egypt and others have noted
the rather ameliorative view of slavery presented in some of the 1930s-1940s
slave narratives gathered by WPA workers.  I think there are at least a
couple of reasons for this:  Many of the interviewers were white people with
some stature in their communities.  African American narrators, understanding
the racial codes of the time, were concerned about unfavorable consequences
that might redound on them if they challenged these codes to a white person's
face by emphasizing the brutalities of slavery - this point is made well by
Davidson & Lytle in the essay on the slave narratives in After the Fact,
noted in a previous posting.  Also, most of these interviews were not tape
recorded, but "written up" by the interviewer from notes taken during the
interview.  (White) interviewers might well have consciously or unconsciously
changed the meaning of some of what narrators said about slavery.

I think this relates to Donna Sharer's question about looking at what shapes
what a person remembers and the way s/he remembers is.  Scott Ellsworth,
writing about the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, used the phrase "segregation of
memory" to describe the way blacks and whites remembered the riot
differently.  This, it seems to me, is quite common in oral history.
Reviewing interviews done in Pennsylvania during the last three decades, I
was struck by how white narrators, when questioned about race relations,
tended to say "we all got along," whereas black narrators told stories of
segregation, discrimination, insults, and injuries.  Where a narrator "is
coming from," the experiences they have had, the social space they occupy,
invariably shape what they remember and how they interpret what they
remember.  Our job is to decode that; I don't think it means psychoanalyzing
narrators, only seeing them as historical actors, situated in a specific set
of social circumstances, and speaking from that position.  Of course some
narrators can step out of their skin and give a broader view, can be
reflective and self-critical within an interview; others cannot.
Judgments are in order.  But overall, to learn how deeply social our memories
are seems to me a good thing.

About Bea Roeder's query on the time required to organize a modest (in terms
of number of interviews) oral history project:  Indeed, while oral history
"sounds like fun" and seems easy, its an enormously labor intensive
undertaking.  I've heard 10:1 quoted as a ratio of hours of preparation:
hours of interview (and this doesn't include transcribing).   Ms. Roeder,
though, is talking about organizing and managing a local project where the
interviews will be done by volunteers.  In my experience, working with
volunteers requires considerable oversight; working with communities requires
lots of leg work, hanging out, multiple phone calling, etc. to gain trust,
build credibility, and learn "the lay of the land," as well as who to
interview, what to interview them about.   So, 40 days doesn't seem
unreasonable.  I would add, however, that the amount of time each interview -
or each step of an oral history project - takes diminishes as one accumulates
more interviews.  Research time diminishes as one knows more about the
subject; training is most intensive - and time-consuming - before any
interviews are done; policies and procedures are established at the outset,
but once in place, they can provide a framework for subsequent work.  So, it
might ultimately be more cost effective to consider doing a few more
interviews than 10.

I'm curious to see what participants have to say about video interviews, in
response to Lisa Rubens's recent posting.  I'd also like to know what have
been your experiences posting interviews - student work or your own
interviews - on the web.  How have you done it?  How has it worked?  Are
there recommended websites for student work?

I continue to look forward to what you all have to say.  --Linda

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Thanks for all the postings over the last few days.&nb=
sp; The various and creative ways people are using oral history in classroom=
s and communities are really quite exciting, and fascinating to learn about.=
   Clearly oral history does hook students (as Donna Sharrer says)=
; clearly it opens up all sorts interesting questions about how people - and=
 historians - make sense of the past.  And thanks so much to C. Pitton=20=
for reminding us that it often doesn't take much to get students to think cr=
itically, to figure out where someone is coming from.   Pitton's d=
eductive/inductive approach to connecting individual stories to broader gene=
ralization also seems useful.



There's been some very useful exchange of information about resources. =
 Keep it coming, and let me add just a couple of items:  For Native Ame=
rican oral histories, look at the website of the South Dakota Oral History C=
enter at the University of S. Dakota at http://usd.edu/iais/oralhist/index.html.  And check=
 out the material at the University of Alaska Rasmuson Library Oral History=20=
Center at http=
://www.uaf.edu/library/oralhistory/index.html.  



A couple of more threads to pick up on:  Barbara Egypt and others have=20=
noted the rather ameliorative view of slavery presented in some of the 1930s=
-1940s slave narratives gathered by WPA workers.  I think there are at=20=
least a couple of reasons for this:  Many of the interviewers were whit=
e people with some stature in their communities.  African American narr=
ators, understanding the racial codes of the time, were concerned about unfa=
vorable consequences that might redound on them if they challenged these cod=
es to a white person's face by emphasizing the brutalities of slavery - this=
 point is made well by Davidson & Lytle in the essay on the slave narrat=
ives in After the Fact, noted in a previous posting.  Also, most=
 of these interviews were not tape recorded, but "written up" by the intervi=
ewer from notes taken during the interview.  (White) interviewers might=
 well have consciously or unconsciously changed the meaning of some of what=20=
narrators said about slavery.   



I think this relates to Donna Sharer's question about looking at what shapes=
 what a person remembers and the way s/he remembers is.  Scott Ellswort=
h, writing about the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, used the phrase "segregation o=
f memory" to describe the way blacks and whites remembered the riot differen=
tly.  This, it seems to me, is quite common in oral history.  Revi=
ewing interviews done in Pennsylvania during the last three decades, I was s=
truck by how white narrators, when questioned about race relations, tended t=
o say "we all got along," whereas black narrators told stories of segregatio=
n, discrimination, insults, and injuries.  Where a narrator "is coming=20=
from," the experiences they have had, the social space they occupy, invariab=
ly shape what they remember and how they interpret what they remember. =
 Our job is to decode that; I don't think it means psychoanalyzing narrators=
, only seeing them as historical actors, situated in a specific set of socia=
l circumstances, and speaking from that position.  Of course some narra=
tors can step out of their skin and give a broader view, can be reflective a=
nd self-critical within an interview; others cannot.  

Judgments are in order.  But overall, to learn how deeply social our me=
mories are seems to me a good thing.  



About Bea Roeder's query on the time required to organize a modest (in terms=
 of number of interviews) oral history project:  Indeed, while oral his=
tory "sounds like fun" and seems easy, its an enormously labor intensive und=
ertaking.  I've heard 10:1 quoted as a ratio of hours of preparation:&n=
bsp; hours of interview (and this doesn't include transcribing).  =
 Ms. Roeder, though, is talking about organizing and managing a local projec=
t where the interviews will be done by volunteers.  In my experience, w=
orking with volunteers requires considerable oversight; working with communi=
ties requires lots of leg work, hanging out, multiple phone calling, etc. to=
 gain trust, build credibility, and learn "the lay of the land," as well as=20=
who to interview, what to interview them about.   So, 40 days does=
n't seem unreasonable.  I would add, however, that the amount of time e=
ach interview - or each step of an oral history project - takes diminishes a=
s one accumulates more interviews.  Research time diminishes as one kno=
ws more about the subject; training is most intensive - and time-consuming -=
 before any interviews are done; policies and procedures are established at=20=
the outset, but once in place, they can provide a framework for subsequent w=
ork.  So, it might ultimately be more cost effective to consider doing=20=
a few more interviews than 10.  



I'm curious to see what participants have to say about video interviews, in=20=
response to Lisa Rubens's recent posting.  I'd also like to know what h=
ave been your experiences posting interviews - student work or your own inte=
rviews - on the web.  How have you done it?  How has it worked?&nb=
sp; Are there recommended websites for student work?



I continue to look forward to what you all have to say.  --Linda=

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--part1_1ce.39354ba.2b8c4326_boundary--
=========================================================================
Date:         Tue, 25 Feb 2003 14:04:41 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Thomas Murray 
Subject:      Oral History and "Video" oral history

I've posted many times as to how my high school class does Oral History.
We first do email interviews, then move to in-class guest speakers and
finally, when we are ready, we do face to face, one on one interviews.  We
published a book of these interviews called "The Heart of a Warrior" last
year.  This year since we wanted to improve and press on we decided to
video tape all of our classroom guests.  We taped from two angles getting
student and others responses as well as the main speaker.  We decided to
stop taping at 30 hours of tape.  The final result was a 40 minute edited
tape of Oral History that is a great product for high school American
History classes.  Many people barely get to the Vietnam War as they teach
American History.  A lot of younger teachers have minimal knowledge of the
War and many have limited contacts with veterans. Our video is a powerful
presentation that can get emotional at times.  Many parents who have
watched their student's copy of the video have told me they couldn't hold
back the tears.

Written Oral History is a great way to engage kids in history, but when
you can look into someone's eyes and hear their voice crack as they talk
of their fallen buddies it makes an impression on you that won't soon go
away.

My at-risk students have found renewed interest in history in particular,
and school in general, because of this course.  Their pride is boundless.
Their Oral History video will hopefully take learning to another level for
many high school kids everywhere.

As a result of this effort one school district in Michigan is buying two
class sets of our book and a few videos to study the personal side of the
war in their Ameican Hisotry classes this year and many years to come.

How about that for a group of kids everybody wanted to throw away!!!!!

TOM MURRAY

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=========================================================================
Date:         Tue, 25 Feb 2003 15:38:23 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Eric Chase 
Subject:      What actually defines oral history
In-Reply-To:  <20030225012353.39966.qmail@web20810.mail.yahoo.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0-1896953374-1046216303=:24559"

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I have a couple of questions...

What exactly defines oral histories?  It seems obvious that someone relating a story verbally whether live or on tape, but what about diary entries?  Or published accounts.  I recall someone mentioning that Studs Terkel's book Working was considered oral history.  Not disputing this, but just curious on what perameters we set.

Next Question to Ms Egypt...

You wouldn't happen to have a copy of the release form you designed for interviews would you?  Surprizingly we don't have an official one here and I would love to see some models before I create one.

Thanks you all for an excellent discussion!

Eric Chase

South Puget Sound Community College

Olympia, Washington



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I have a couple of questions...
What exactly defines oral histories?  It seems obvious that someone relating a story verbally whether live or on tape, but what about diary entries?  Or published accounts.  I recall someone mentioning that Studs Terkel's book Working was considered oral history.  Not disputing this, but just curious on what perameters we set.  
Next Question to Ms Egypt...
You wouldn't happen to have a copy of the release form you designed for interviews would you?  Surprizingly we don't have an official one here and I would love to see some models before I create one.  
Thanks you all for an excellent discussion!
Eric Chase
South Puget Sound Community College
Olympia, Washington

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Date:         Wed, 26 Feb 2003 11:03:10 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         James Spady 
Subject:      Re: consent form
In-Reply-To:  <200302260459.h1Q4xI6F025564@mail.wm.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Re: Eric Chase's request. Here is William and Mary's
consent form, for any intersted. Is this what you mean
by a "release"? Hope it's helpful. -js



Participant Informed Consent Form

The College of William & Mary


       The general nature of this study, entitled "."
conducted by _______ has been explained to me. I
understand that I will be interviewed and participate in
focus groups answering questions about and discussing
_________________. I also understand that my responses
will be confidential, that my anonymity will be
preserved, and that my name will not be associated with
any results of this study. I know that I may refuse to
answer any question asked and may discontinue my
participation at any time. I am aware that I may report
dissatisfactions with any aspect of this experiment to
the Chair of the Protection of Human Subjects Committee,
__(Chair name and phone number here) ____. I am aware
that I must be at least 18 years of age to participate.
       My signature below signifies my voluntary
participation in this project, and that I have received
a copy of this consent form.


       _________________________
____________________________
                      Date
                                           Signature


                         ____________________________

                                            Print Name



           THIS PROJECT WAS APPROVED BY THE COLLEGE OF
WILLIAM AND MARY PROTECTION OF HUMAN SUBJECTS COMMITTEE
(Phone: 757-221-3901) ON [INSERT DATE] AND EXPIRES ON
[INSERT DATE].

James Spady
Ph.D. Candidate
American Studies Program
College Apartments #5
The College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, Virginia
23187

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=========================================================================
Date:         Wed, 26 Feb 2003 15:04:48 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Barbara Egypt 
Subject:      Oral History Consent Form
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Hi, all -

After reading William and Mary's I would definitely incorporate some of their information re: Consent. Here is the one I sent to Eric:

 ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Professor Barbara A. Egypt, Ph.D.

ORAL HISTORY DONOR FORM

 I agree to participate in the Drew University Program in African American Studies Oral History Project.  I am aware that my interview may be edited and transcribed and then kept on file for use by researchers and may be used in publications and programs based upon the project.  I grant permission for my interview to be used for research.

Furthermore, I give as an unrestricted gift to the African American Studies Program and the Department of History at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey the tape-recorded interviews and/or transcripts and transfer legal title and all literary rights including copyright.  This gift does not preclude any use I myself may make of the information in the recordings and/or transcripts.

 ____________________________                _______________________________

Name of Interviewer                                                              Name of Interviewee

(please print)                                                                          (please print)

 Signature of Interviewer                                                                                                                                         ________________________________________Signature of Interviewee__________

Address:__________________________________

Telephone:_____________________________Date:__________________________

 Barbara A. Egypt.    begypt@yahoo.com

















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Hi, all -
After reading William and Mary's I would definitely incorporate some of their information re: Consent. Here is the one I sent to Eric:
 ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Professor Barbara A. Egypt, Ph.D.
ORAL HISTORY DONOR FORM
 I agree to participate in the Drew University Program in African American Studies Oral History Project.  I am aware that my interview may be edited and transcribed and then kept on file for use by researchers and may be used in publications and programs based upon the project.  I grant permission for my interview to be used for research.
Furthermore, I give as an unrestricted gift to the African American Studies Program and the Department of History at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey the tape-recorded interviews and/or transcripts and transfer legal title and all literary rights including copyright.  This gift does not preclude any use I myself may make of the information in the recordings and/or transcripts.
 ____________________________                _______________________________
Name of Interviewer                                                              Name of Interviewee
(please print)                                                                          (please print)
 Signature of Interviewer                                                                                                                                         ________________________________________Signature of Interviewee__________
Address:__________________________________                                                                                               
Telephone:_____________________________Date:__________________________                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
 Barbara A. Egypt.    begypt@yahoo.com
                                                                                              
                                                                                                
                                                                                                 
 
 
 
 

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=========================================================================
Date:         Wed, 26 Feb 2003 22:31:34 -0600
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Michael 
Subject:      Creating oral histories as course assignments
MIME-Version: 1.0
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              boundary="----=_NextPart_000_000B_01C2DDE6.D1A80020"

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        charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

I'm really enjoying this discussion, and it comes at a good time as I =
revamp my senior seminar in Oral History Methods for next fall.  I will =
definitely be incorporating some of the sources mentioned in the =
discussion as required or suggested readings.  I will also no doubt =
incorporate points, observations, and discussions in my lectures.  I =
make a regular habit of mentioning discussion-list materials in my =
classes to show students that we continually engage our material no =
matter how long we have been out of school, and to impress upon our =
majors that one of the great things about being a historian is that we =
are members of a large group of very interesting people, and that we are =
always learning from each other.

=20

In addition to the American history surveys, I also teach a one-semester =
frosh survey on Racial and Ethnic Groups in American History.  Part of =
the course requirement is to do a five-generation ancestor chart, or at =
least as much of one as they can.  I give them a crash course in =
genealogy, but advise them the best place to start is with parents, =
grandparents, or other older relatives.  Have any of you tried family =
history oral history?  I could require them to do at least a half-hour =
interview with someone in their family about matters of ethnicity.  I =
live and work in Central Wisconsin, where we not only have Germans, =
Poles, Scandinavians, and other European groups, but also several =
American Indian tribes, and most recently, large numbers of Hmong =
people.  Anyone have any thought on this?

=20

I had my first experience with oral history as a graduate student doing =
oral history of my school (University of Southwestern Louisiana, now =
University of Louisiana at Lafayette), so I've decided that next fall =
when I do the seminar, everyone will do UWSP oral history.  Have any of =
you done anything like that, either at the high school or college =
levels? =20

=20

While I'm on the seminar, is there an oral history syllabi collection?  =
I know my course needs work, and would benefit from seeing how other =
people do it.

=20

Thanks to everyone for making this so interesting and informative.

=20

Michael Foret

Associate Professor of History

University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

mforet@uwsp.edu

http://www.uwsp.edu/history/faculty/FORET/FORET.HTM

=20


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------=_NextPart_000_000B_01C2DDE6.D1A80020
Content-Type: text/html;
        charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable









I=92m really enjoying this discussion, and it comes at a good =
time as I=20
revamp my senior seminar in Oral History Methods for next fall.  I will definitely be =
incorporating some=20
of the sources mentioned in the discussion as required or suggested=20
readings.  I will also no =
doubt=20
incorporate points, observations, and discussions in my lectures.  I make a regular habit of =
mentioning=20
discussion-list materials in my classes to show students that we =
continually=20
engage our material no matter how long we have been out of school, and =
to=20
impress upon our majors that one of the great things about being a =
historian is=20
that we are members of a large group of very interesting people, and =
that we are=20
always learning from each other.
 
In addition to the American history surveys, I also teach a =
one-semester=20
frosh survey on Racial and Ethnic Groups in American History.  Part of the course requirement =
is to do=20
a five-generation ancestor chart, or at least as much of one as they =
can.  I give them a crash course in =
genealogy,=20
but advise them the best place to start is with parents, grandparents, =
or other=20
older relatives.  Have any =
of you=20
tried family history oral history? =20
I could require them to do at least a half-hour interview with =
someone in=20
their family about matters of ethnicity. =20
I live and work in Central Wisconsin, where we not only have =
Germans,=20
Poles, Scandinavians, and other European groups, but also several =
American=20
Indian tribes, and most recently, large numbers of Hmong people.  Anyone have any thought on=20
this?
 
I had my first experience with oral history as =
a graduate=20
student doing oral history of my school (University of Southwestern =
Louisiana,=20
now University of Louisiana at Lafayette), so I=92ve decided that next =
fall when I=20
do the seminar, everyone will do UWSP oral history.  Have any of you done anything =
like that,=20
either at the high school or college levels?  
 
While I=92m on the seminar, is there an oral history syllabi=20
collection?  I know my =
course needs=20
work, and would benefit from seeing how other people do it.
 
Thanks to everyone for making this so interesting and=20
informative.
 
Michael Foret
Associate Professor of History
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
mforet@uwsp.edu
http://www.uwsp.edu/history/faculty/FORET/FORET.HTM
 
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

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=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 27 Feb 2003 11:49:34 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Jean Choate 
Subject:      Re: Creating oral histories as course assignments
In-Reply-To:  <000e01c2de19$1d218580$9845aa42@michaelzkw51jb>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 10:31 PM 2/26/2003 -0600, you wrote:

>I'm really enjoying this discussion, and it comes at a good time as I
>revamp my senior seminar in Oral History Methods for next fall.  I will
>definitely be incorporating some of the sources mentioned in the
>discussion as required or suggested readings.  I will also no doubt
>incorporate points, observations, and discussions in my lectures.  I make
>a regular habit of mentioning discussion-list materials in my classes to
>show students that we continually engage our material no matter how long
>we have been out of school, and to impress upon our majors that one of the
>great things about being a historian is that we are members of a large
>group of very interesting people, and that we are always learning from
>each other.
>
>  
>
>In addition to the American history surveys, I also teach a one-semester
>frosh survey on Racial and Ethnic Groups in American History.  Part of the
>course requirement is to do a five-generation ancestor chart, or at least
>as much of one as they can.  I give them a crash course in genealogy, but
>advise them the best place to start is with parents, grandparents, or
>other older relatives.  Have any of you tried family history oral
>history?  I could require them to do at least a half-hour interview with
>someone in their family about matters of ethnicity.  I live and work in
>Central Wisconsin, where we not only have Germans, Poles, Scandinavians,
>and other European groups, but also several American Indian tribes, and
>most recently, large numbers of Hmong people.  Anyone have any thought on this?
>
>
>
>I had my first experience with oral history as a graduate student doing
>oral history of my school (University of Southwestern Louisiana, now
>University of Louisiana at Lafayette), so I've decided that next fall when
>I do the seminar, everyone will do UWSP oral history.  Have any of you
>done anything like that, either at the high school or college levels?
>
>
>
>While I'm on the seminar, is there an oral history syllabi collection?  I
>know my course needs work, and would benefit from seeing how other people
>do it.
>
>
>
>Thanks to everyone for making this so interesting and informative.
>
>
>
>Michael Foret
>
>Associate Professor of History
>
>University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
>
>mforet@uwsp.edu
>
>http://www.uwsp.edu/history/faculty/FORET/FORET.HTM
>
>
>This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
>http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.



Jean Choate
Coastal Georgia Community College
BrunswickGa.


When I teach Women's History I require a paper on "A Woman in  My
Family."  The students at first usually comment that no one in their family
has done anything interesting or worthwhile, but after some interviewing
they begin to appreciate the family member they are interviewing.  Often
this assignment seems to have opened up conversations that might have been
delayed or never taken place.

Jean Choate
Coastal Georgia Community College

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=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 27 Feb 2003 12:55:50 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Thomas Murray 
Subject:      creating Oral History as a class assignment

I currently teach a high school DropOut Prevention course in Peer
Counseling.  I try to find some curriculum related way to do Oral History
in as many classes as I can.  In this course I'm doing an Oral History of
our school community.  We're looking at who is in our school family plus
how our school and community has changed over time.  I've found that the
project is too big for my small class so I'm trying to focus the work on
themes like lifestyle, our beaches, our school, transportation and our
community makeup.

My kids don't all have the best writing or computer skills at times so the
transcribing has been difficult.  I try to use teams whenever possible.  It
seems to help a lot.  They enjoy the interviewing and the analysis that
comes from that process.  When we get the project done and published we'll
have a big celebration and I can't wait to see the big smiles on the proud
kids' faces.

I personally feel flexibility is a key to all of my Oral History projects.
My ideas can easily turn out difficult or impossible so I adjust as the
class takes shape.  I expand or contract the focus based on the ability and
energy in the class.  Once we get a clear focus and the kids agree we move
ahead with passion.  If you're passionate, the kids will soon be too.

Oral History has the capacity to make any class special.  I love it.

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 27 Feb 2003 12:18:50 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         gerardo licon 
Subject:      Re: creating Oral History as a class assignment
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Content-disposition: inline


Just a quick comment.  I strongly recommend indexing instead of transcribing especially if your interviewer to interviewee ratio is greater than 1:1.  
Gerardo Licon
Graduate Student of History
University of Southern California
----- Original Message -----
From: Thomas Murray <Thomasemurray@HOTMAIL.COM>
Date: Thursday, February 27, 2003 9:55 am
Subject: creating Oral History as a class assignment

> I currently teach a high school DropOut Prevention course in Peer 
> Counseling. I try to find some curriculum related way to do Oral History 
> in as many classes as I can. In this course I'm doing an Oral History of 
> our school community. We're looking at who is in our school family plus 
> how our school and community has changed over time. I've found that the 
> project is too big for my small class so I'm trying to focus the work on 
> themes like lifestyle, our beaches, our school, transportation and our 
> community makeup. 
> 
> My kids don't all have the best writing or computer skills at times so the 
> transcribing has been difficult. I try to use teams whenever possible. It 
> seems to help a lot. They enjoy the interviewing and the analysis that 
> comes from that process. When we get the project done and published we'll 

> have a big celebration and I can't wait to see the big smiles on the proud 
> kids' faces. 
> 
> I personally feel flexibility is a key to all of my Oral History projects. 
> My ideas can easily turn out difficult or impossible so I adjust as the 
> class takes shape. I expand or contract the focus based on the ability and 
> energy in the class. Once we get a clear focus and the kids agree we move 
> ahead with passion. If you're passionate, the kids will soon be too. 
> 
> Oral History has the capacity to make any class special. I love it. 
> 
> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at 
> http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History. 
> 
This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 27 Feb 2003 23:13:23 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Pete Haro 
Subject:      Re: Creating oral histories as course assignments
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Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable

Dear Professor Foret: Did you have the students present their findings to
the class or present them to you as a paper? What kind of criteria did you
establish for your students to follow? I would be very interested in gettin=
g
more details.

Sincerely,


Pete Haro
Cuyamaca College

----------
From: Michael 
To: ORALHISTORYFORUM@ASHP.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Creating oral histories as course assignments
Date: Wed, Feb 26, 2003, 8:31 PM


I=92m really enjoying this discussion, and it comes at a good time as I revam=
p
my senior seminar in Oral History Methods for next fall.  I will definitely
be incorporating some of the sources mentioned in the discussion as require=
d
or suggested readings.  I will also no doubt incorporate points,
observations, and discussions in my lectures.  I make a regular habit of
mentioning discussion-list materials in my classes to show students that we
continually engage our material no matter how long we have been out of
school, and to impress upon our majors that one of the great things about
being a historian is that we are members of a large group of very
interesting people, and that we are always learning from each other.



In addition to the American history surveys, I also teach a one-semester
frosh survey on Racial and Ethnic Groups in American History.  Part of the
course requirement is to do a five-generation ancestor chart, or at least a=
s
much of one as they can.  I give them a crash course in genealogy, but
advise them the best place to start is with parents, grandparents, or other
older relatives.  Have any of you tried family history oral history?  I
could require them to do at least a half-hour interview with someone in
their family about matters of ethnicity.  I live and work in Central
Wisconsin, where we not only have Germans, Poles, Scandinavians, and other
European groups, but also several American Indian tribes, and most recently=
,
large numbers of Hmong people.  Anyone have any thought on this?



I had my first experience with oral history as a graduate student doing ora=
l
history of my school (University of Southwestern Louisiana, now University
of Louisiana at Lafayette), so I=92ve decided that next fall when I do the
seminar, everyone will do UWSP oral history.  Have any of you done anything
like that, either at the high school or college levels?



While I=92m on the seminar, is there an oral history syllabi collection?  I
know my course needs work, and would benefit from seeing how other people d=
o
it.



Thanks to everyone for making this so interesting and informative.



Michael Foret

Associate Professor of History

University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

mforet@uwsp.edu

http://www.uwsp.edu/history/faculty/FORET/FORET.HTM


This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.=


This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

--MS_Mac_OE_3129232403_472756_MIME_Part
Content-type: text/html; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable






Dear Professor Foret: Did you have the students present their findings to t=
he class or present them to you as a paper? What kind of criteria did you es=
tablish for your students to follow? I would be very interested in getting m=
ore details. 



Sincerely, 





Pete Haro

Cuyamaca College



----------

From: Michael <mforet@TZNET.COM>

To: ORALHISTORYFORUM@ASHP.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU

Subject: Creating oral histories as course assignments

Date: Wed, Feb 26, 2003, 8:31 PM





I=92m really enjoying this discussio=
n, and it comes at a good time as I revamp my senior seminar in Oral History=
 Methods for next fall.  I will definitely be incorporating some of the=
 sources mentioned in the discussion as required or suggested readings. &nbs=
p;I will also no doubt incorporate points, observations, and discussions in =
my lectures.  I make a regular habit of mentioning discussion-list mate=
rials in my classes to show students that we continually engage our material=
 no matter how long we have been out of school, and to impress upon our majo=
rs that one of the great things about being a historian is that we are membe=
rs of a large group of very interesting people, and that we are always learn=
ing from each other. 



 



In addition to the American history surveys, I also teach a one-seme=
ster frosh survey on Racial and Ethnic Groups in American History.  Par=
t of the course requirement is to do a five-generation ancestor chart, or at=
 least as much of one as they can.  I give them a crash course in genea=
logy, but advise them the best place to start is with parents, grandparents,=
 or other older relatives.  Have any of you tried family history oral h=
istory?  I could require them to do at least a half-hour interview with=
 someone in their family about matters of ethnicity.  I live and work i=
n Central Wisconsin, where we not only have Germans, Poles, Scandinavians, a=
nd other European groups, but also several American Indian tribes, and most =
recently, large numbers of Hmong people.  Anyone have any thought on th=
is? 



 



I had my first experience with oral history as a graduate student do=
ing oral history of my school (University of Southwestern Louisiana, now Uni=
versity of Louisiana at Lafayette), so I=92ve decided that next fall when I do=
 the seminar, everyone will do UWSP oral history.  Have any of you done=
 anything like that, either at the high school or college levels?  



 



While I=92m on the seminar, is there an oral history syllabi collectio=
n?  I know my course needs work, and would benefit from seeing how othe=
r people do it. 



 



Thanks to everyone for making this so interesting and informative. 



 



Michael Foret 



Associate Professor of History 



University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point 



mforet@uwsp.edu <=
BR>


http://www.uwsp.edu/history/faculty/FORET/F=
ORET.HTM 



 

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web sit=
e at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for m=
ore resources for teaching U.S. History. 




This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

--MS_Mac_OE_3129232403_472756_MIME_Part--
=========================================================================
Date:         Fri, 28 Feb 2003 07:52:40 EST
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Linda Shopes 
Subject:      further thoughts
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
              boundary="part1_61.2e38b142.2b90b598_boundary"

--part1_61.2e38b142.2b90b598_boundary
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A number of issues have come up in the most recent postings, and I will get
to them in a second.  First, though, I want to recognize how well the
listserv format encourages an informal collegiality - people get to say with
what's on their mind and the conversation loopes along, ranging over
disparate topics.  George Foret noted that we historians are very interesting
people who love to talk and learn form each other.  Indeed!  And if we can
communicate that to our students, they will be very well served - great idea
to include list participation as part of course participation.

A couple of people have noted their use of oral history within the context of
a family history assignment.  To my mind, there really is no better place to
start the study of history, it seems to me.  By connecting with what they
know, intimately and deeply, and then moving outward, we get students to see
how their own families have been part of what we call history and also how
history is something bigger than their own lives.  By focusing on individual
life stories, oral history can enliven that connection. (And as an aside, I
know of a professor who has students plot their families' im/migration
histories on a map during the first class of a U.S. history survey course,
illustrating the important point of Americans' diverse origins.)  Joan
Choate's students' comments are also typical, I think - most people dismiss
their experiences, and the experiences of those they know, as "not important"
in the sense of "capital H" history.  If we can help students make that leap
- help them understand that their lives, what they have done, the decisions
they have made, are the stuff of history - and if oral history can play a
useful role in that, well, we've done very well.   This is different from
students making an affective connection with the experiences of others - not
a bad thing, I suppose, but something I also find troubling about oral
history.  I'd suggest that oral history is more than a vehicle for feeling
sympathy; it's a practice that requires us to make sense of the individual
stories.

In response to Michael Foret's query, I don't know of an available collection
of oral history syllabi - that would be a useful resource.  I have found,
though, that a  web search can identify some useful materials.  And per
Gerardo Licon's comment about indexing instead of transcribing: that is
indeed a way to gain some control over what's on a tape without the time
consuming process of transcribing.  Another option is to transcribe
selectively - either selected interviews in a collection or selected segments
of a given interview that might be especially valuable or relevant to the
topic/project at hand.  Transcribing, and then putting spoken English into
written English, can help students do the sort of close work necessary to
develop their language skills, it seems to me.

Eric Chase ask what defines oral histories.  It is a protean term, referring
to both the process of interviewing and the product of that interview,
whether in tape or transcribed form.  Moreover, "oral history" has been used
colloquially to refer to informal conversation about "the old days," to the
well crafted and often repeated narratives of a group's tradition bearers,
and to written accounts based on conversation with another person.  The Oral
History Association defines oral history as "a method of gathering and
preserving historical information through recorded interviews with
participants in past events and ways of life" (see OHA's Statement of
Principles and Standards for oral history at
http://www.dickinson.edu/oha/EvaluationGuidelines.html).  I think oral
history involves a  systematic and disciplined effort to record memories of
significance - it's not a casual conversation, it's talk that is
self-conscious, and with a clear purpose.  What's common in all of this is
the "oral" nature of oral history, that "it" originates in a conversation, or
dialogue about the past.  It's the exchange between interviewer and
interviewee that creates the document, the narrative - what a person says
about the past is inextricably related to what questions they are asked.  So,
I would say that a diary, for example, though a first person account, can't
be reckoned as oral history, b/c there has been no explicit dialogue.  A
diarist may be writing with an audience in mind, but s/he's still engaged in
a solitary act.

Several respondents also shared release forms for interviews, that is
agreements between interviewee and interviewee that define the terms
according to which the interview can be used.  As I understand it, release
forms are required b/c, according to laws of copyright, rights to an
interview belong to the interviewee (and perhaps also the interviewer), and
for others to use the interview, they must sign over the rights.  I do note
that William & Mary's release form, helpfully provided by James Spady,
requires the preservation of interviewee anonymity.  I suspect this is
required by William & Mary's IRB, in accordance with federal regulations
governing research on human subjects, which are increasingly being applied to
oral history.  The problem, of course, is that anonymous sources are
frequently suspect in history; and, in fact, many narrators are proud of
their stories, their contributions to history, and so are comfortable with
being recognized and named within an interview.  This is just one example of
the way these federal regulations - designed with biomedical and behavioral
research in mind - are a bad fit for history.  If any list participants have
comments or questions about IRB review of oral history, I'll be happy to try
to address them.  And for a fuller discussion of legal issues related to oral
history,  see John Neuenschwander's very helpful Oral History and the Law,
published by the Oral History Association.

We're coming to the conclusion of this forum.  I'd like to issue a "last
call" for participation - any issues/questions you want to raise, any
resources you want to share, any final thoughts or parting comments.  We'll
keep the list open through the weekend, and on Tues. or Wed. I'll post a
final comment.  Thanks to all.  --Linda

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.

--part1_61.2e38b142.2b90b598_boundary
Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

A number of issues have come up in the most recent pos=
tings, and I will get to them in a second.  First, though, I want to re=
cognize how well the listserv format encourages an informal collegiality - p=
eople get to say with what's on their mind and the conversation loopes along=
, ranging over disparate topics.  George Foret noted that we historians=
 are very interesting people who love to talk and learn form each other.&nbs=
p; Indeed!  And if we can communicate that to our students, they will b=
e very well served - great idea to include list participation as part of cou=
rse participation.  



A couple of people have noted their use of oral history within the context o=
f a family history assignment.  To my mind, there really is no better p=
lace to start the study of history, it seems to me.  By connecting with=
 what they know, intimately and deeply, and then moving outward, we get stud=
ents to see how their own families have been part of what we call history an=
d also how history is something bigger than their own lives.  By focusi=
ng on individual life stories, oral history can enliven that connection. (An=
d as an aside, I know of a professor who has students plot their families' i=
m/migration histories on a map during the first class of a U.S. history surv=
ey course, illustrating the important point of Americans' diverse origins.)&=
nbsp; Joan Choate's students' comments are also typical, I think - most peop=
le dismiss their experiences, and the experiences of those they know, as "no=
t important" in the sense of "capital H" history.  If we can help stude=
nts make that leap - help them understand that their lives, what they have d=
one, the decisions they have made, are the stuff of history - and if oral hi=
story can play a useful role in that, well, we've done very well.  =
; This is different from students making an affective connection with the ex=
periences of others - not a bad thing, I suppose, but something I also find=20=
troubling about oral history.  I'd suggest that oral history is more th=
an a vehicle for feeling sympathy; it's a practice that requires us to make=20=
sense of the individual stories.



In response to Michael Foret's query, I don't know of an available collectio=
n of oral history syllabi - that would be a useful resource.  I have fo=
und, though, that a  web search can identify some useful materials.&nbs=
p; And per Gerardo Licon's comment about indexing instead of transcribing: t=
hat is indeed a way to gain some control over what's on a tape without the t=
ime consuming process of transcribing.  Another option is to transcribe=
 selectively - either selected interviews in a collection or selected segmen=
ts of a given interview that might be especially valuable or relevant to the=
 topic/project at hand.  Transcribing, and then putting spoken English=20=
into written English, can help students do the sort of close work necessary=20=
to develop their language skills, it seems to me.   



Eric Chase ask what defines oral histories.  It is a protean term, refe=
rring to both the process of interviewing and the product of that interview,=
 whether in tape or transcribed form.  Moreover, "oral history" has bee=
n used colloquially to refer to informal conversation about "the old days,"=20=
to the well crafted and often repeated narratives of a group's tradition bea=
rers, and to written accounts based on conversation with another person.&nbs=
p; The Oral History Association defines oral history as "a method of gatheri=
ng and preserving historical information through recorded interviews with pa=
rticipants in past events and ways of life" (see OHA's Statement of Principl=
es and Standards for oral history at http://www.dickinson.edu/oha/Evaluation=
Guidelines.html).  I think oral history involves a  systematic and=
 disciplined effort to record memories of significance - it's not a casual c=
onversation, it's talk that is self-conscious, and with a clear purpose.&nbs=
p; What's common in all of this is the "oral" nature of oral history, that "=
it" originates in a conversation, or dialogue about the past.  It's the=
 exchange between interviewer and interviewee that creates the document, the=
 narrative - what a person says about the past is inextricably related to wh=
at questions they are asked.  So, I would say that a diary, for example=
, though a first person account, can't be reckoned as oral history, b/c ther=
e has been no explicit dialogue.  A diarist may be writing with an audi=
ence in mind, but s/he's still engaged in a solitary act.

  

Several respondents also shared release forms for interviews, that is agreem=
ents between interviewee and interviewee that define the terms according to=20=
which the interview can be used.  As I understand it, release forms are=
 required b/c, according to laws of copyright, rights to an interview belong=
 to the interviewee (and perhaps also the interviewer), and for others to us=
e the interview, they must sign over the rights.  I do note that Willia=
m & Mary's release form, helpfully provided by James Spady, requires the=
 preservation of interviewee anonymity.  I suspect this is required by=20=
William & Mary's IRB, in accordance with federal regulations governing r=
esearch on human subjects, which are increasingly being applied to oral hist=
ory.  The problem, of course, is that anonymous sources are frequently=20=
suspect in history; and, in fact, many narrators are proud of their stories,=
 their contributions to history, and so are comfortable with being recognize=
d and named within an interview.  This is just one example of the way t=
hese federal regulations - designed with biomedical and behavioral research=20=
in mind - are a bad fit for history.  If any list participants have com=
ments or questions about IRB review of oral history, I'll be happy to try to=
 address them.  And for a fuller discussion of legal issues related to=20=
oral history,  see John Neuenschwander's very helpful Oral History and=20=
the Law, published by the Oral History Association.



We're coming to the conclusion of this forum.  I'd like to issue a "las=
t call" for participation - any issues/questions you want to raise, any reso=
urces you want to share, any final thoughts or parting comments.  We'll=
 keep the list open through the weekend, and on Tues. or Wed. I'll post a fi=
nal comment.  Thanks to all.  --Linda


This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
--part1_61.2e38b142.2b90b598_boundary--
=========================================================================
Date:         Fri, 28 Feb 2003 12:41:23 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         Adriana Green 
Subject:      ethical considerations

Dear all,
I have been enjoying the exchange so far and I am especially impressed by
the kind of work being done with students using oral history.

There are, however, a couple of considerations to keep in mind. As (the
only?) anthropologist here, I remind you that anthropology also relies on
oral history as a method of inquiry. Talking to people is what we do in the
field, and incorporating what we've talked with them about is how we then
use the information so acquired.

One major issue regards informed consent and proper approval to conduct
research with human subjects. The minimum requirement is that the
interviewee give their consent to the exchange and be fully informed as to
the use the interview will be put. If anyone is going to profit by, say, a
book being published of these interviews, the interviewee has a right to
know how/where/why their words are used and be offered some royalties. A
consent form should have a short description of the project and state to
what use the material will be put; then it is signed by both the researcher
and the interviewee.

Federal law requires all institutions that receive public funding to
register human research projects with the appropriate research office and
go up for review by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). This is VERY
important to do. The main rationale is for the protection from abuses and
exploitation of individuals and groups; the most concern is with medical
and psychological research, and if your project is "innocuous" you
shouldn't have any problem getting approval and even exemption. Some
universities (and perhaps high schools?) may also require that class
projects that have students collect oral histories be cleared first; when
in doubt, ask!

This issue is especially important when doing research with, say, Native
Americans. Many tribes have their own IRB from which to gain approval of a
project. That means you have to get approval from both your insitution and
the tribe, plus individual consent forms signed by those you will actually
be interviewing.
One article I recommend to all those who are collecting oral histories is
by Nathalie Piquemal, "Free and Informed Consent in Research Involving
Native American Communities," American Indian Research and Culture Journal
25(1):65-79 (2001).

In the last twenty years ethnohistorians have been(finally!)using oral
histories as both primary sources and as a method of inquiry. At the
forefront of this discourse in all its facets, including controversies, are
Native Americans and ethnohistorians dealing with Native American topics.
For starters, I recommend reading Angela Cavender Wilson's essay "Power of
the Spoken Word: Native Oral Traditions in American Indian History" in the
fine book Rethinking American Indian History edited by Donald L. Fixico
(1997, University of New mexico Press). I would also check out the work of
historian Theda Perdue.

Finally, a word on editorial practices. Dialectal and slang uses of the
English language can also be indicative of wider social and cultural
patterns and so are valuable. And, there is much to be said for maintaining
the original flavor of what and how someone answered a question.  Even
though you might want to edit responses for clarity, cohesiveness and even
language for your own uses, you should always indicate that you did so in a
note. However, I urge that the entire transcription be as faithful to the
original as possible, even indicating pauses, laughter, etc. Just as you
may use archived and published oral histories, so other researchers might
be using yours, and those things might be important for their own
interpretations.

I hope this is helpful,


Adriana Greci Green, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of History
Michigan State University
greenad@msu.edu

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Fri, 28 Feb 2003 10:33:15 -0800
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "McCaman, Kristin" 
Subject:      Re: ethical considerations
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Professor Green's comments brought to mind another issue that has not yet
been discussed (I think) - that of the interview subject's right to review
the transcript, video or other use of their interview.  Interview subjects
should receive a draft copy of the transcript of their interview, to review
for corrections but also to give their consent to the final product.

Professor Green mentions retaining a person's dialect, phrasing, or
laughter, but this can be particularly difficult to do.  Transcription is
something of an art and a challenge for beginning oral historians.  In
transcribing my first oral history interview, I tried to keep the style and
flow of the subject's speech.  But when he read my transcript, he thought it
made him sound uneducated.  So I followed his suggestions to revise the
transcript.  The final product had less "personality" than the sound
interview, but still included all the most important details and conformed
this gentleman's wishes.  It required a little bit of soul-searching on my
part to come to terms with the fact that these words do not belong to me/the
museum, but to the people who have been generous enough to share of part of
their lives with us.  I also keep in mind that the transcript is a
complement to the recorded interview, not a substitute for it.

In his book Doing Oral History, Don Ritchie covers the ethical issues
surrounding the subject's control of the material.  He provides helpful
strategies for dealing with interviewees who may ask that entire sections of
the interview  be removed from the transcript or that sections of the
interview  be "closed" for a certain number of years.

Kristin McCaman
Program Coordinator
History San Jose
San Jose, CA

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Adriana Green [SMTP:superadj@YAHOO.COM]
> Sent: Friday, February 28, 2003 9:41 AM
> To:   ORALHISTORYFORUM@ASHP.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject:      ethical considerations
>
> Dear all,
> I have been enjoying the exchange so far and I am especially impressed by
> the kind of work being done with students using oral history.
>
> There are, however, a couple of considerations to keep in mind. As (the
> only?) anthropologist here, I remind you that anthropology also relies on
> oral history as a method of inquiry. Talking to people is what we do in
> the
> field, and incorporating what we've talked with them about is how we then
> use the information so acquired.
>
> One major issue regards informed consent and proper approval to conduct
> research with human subjects. The minimum requirement is that the
> interviewee give their consent to the exchange and be fully informed as to
> the use the interview will be put. If anyone is going to profit by, say, a
> book being published of these interviews, the interviewee has a right to
> know how/where/why their words are used and be offered some royalties. A
> consent form should have a short description of the project and state to
> what use the material will be put; then it is signed by both the
> researcher
> and the interviewee.
>
> Federal law requires all institutions that receive public funding to
> register human research projects with the appropriate research office and
> go up for review by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). This is VERY
> important to do. The main rationale is for the protection from abuses and
> exploitation of individuals and groups; the most concern is with medical
> and psychological research, and if your project is "innocuous" you
> shouldn't have any problem getting approval and even exemption. Some
> universities (and perhaps high schools?) may also require that class
> projects that have students collect oral histories be cleared first; when
> in doubt, ask!
>
> This issue is especially important when doing research with, say, Native
> Americans. Many tribes have their own IRB from which to gain approval of a
> project. That means you have to get approval from both your insitution and
> the tribe, plus individual consent forms signed by those you will actually
> be interviewing.
> One article I recommend to all those who are collecting oral histories is
> by Nathalie Piquemal, "Free and Informed Consent in Research Involving
> Native American Communities," American Indian Research and Culture Journal
> 25(1):65-79 (2001).
>
> In the last twenty years ethnohistorians have been(finally!)using oral
> histories as both primary sources and as a method of inquiry. At the
> forefront of this discourse in all its facets, including controversies,
> are
> Native Americans and ethnohistorians dealing with Native American topics.
> For starters, I recommend reading Angela Cavender Wilson's essay "Power of
> the Spoken Word: Native Oral Traditions in American Indian History" in the
> fine book Rethinking American Indian History edited by Donald L. Fixico
> (1997, University of New mexico Press). I would also check out the work of
> historian Theda Perdue.
>
> Finally, a word on editorial practices. Dialectal and slang uses of the
> English language can also be indicative of wider social and cultural
> patterns and so are valuable. And, there is much to be said for
> maintaining
> the original flavor of what and how someone answered a question.  Even
> though you might want to edit responses for clarity, cohesiveness and even
> language for your own uses, you should always indicate that you did so in
> a
> note. However, I urge that the entire transcription be as faithful to the
> original as possible, even indicating pauses, laughter, etc. Just as you
> may use archived and published oral histories, so other researchers might
> be using yours, and those things might be important for their own
> interpretations.
>
> I hope this is helpful,
>
>
> Adriana Greci Green, PhD
> Visiting Assistant Professor
> Department of History
> Michigan State University
> greenad@msu.edu
>
> This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at
> http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S.
> History.

This forum is sponsored by History Matters--please visit our Web site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu for more resources for teaching U.S. History.
=========================================================================
Date:         Fri, 28 Feb 2003 23:18:44 -0500
Reply-To:     "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
Sender:       "Using Oral History to Teach U.S. History"
              
From:         "Noonan, Ellen" 
Subject:      New forum beginning on Civil War, David Blight moderator
Mime-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

The next Talking History forum begins this week, on the Civil War with David
Blight as Guest Moderator. If you would like to subscribe to this forum you
can go directly to http://ashp.listserv.cuny.edu/archives/civilwarforum.html
and choose "Join or Leave the List."

Or, you can email me directly (don't respond to this message!) at
enoonan@gc.cuny.edu and I will subscribe you. If you have already asked me
to subscribe you, you don't need to email me again.

Ellen


---------
Ellen Noonan
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue, Room 7301.10
New York, NY  10016
(212) 817-1969
enoonan@gc.cuny.edu
http://www.ashp.cuny.edu

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