Teaching with Primary Sources: The Oral History Component July 2010

Teaching with Primary Sources:The Oral History ComponentJuly 2010 the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Department @ California University of PennsylvaniaMr. Nik RobertsDr. DAVE LONICH roberts_n@calu.edu 724.938.6022 Keystone 112

Session 1: Conceptual Framework • What? • Definition • Demarcation • Where? • Historic scope • Modern scope • Why? • Pedagogical justifications

Agenda for Session One • A) Definition • A primary source? • Demarcation (from other oral sources of information) • B) History • Distinguished from written history • C) Pedagogy • Unique knowledge available • Trans-disciplinary uses • Critical thinking • Compatibility (student-centered, inquiry-based & project-based learning) • D) Digital Collections Demonstration • E) Web-quest

What is Oral History? • Definition(s) • Demarcation

A) DefinitionWhat is Oral History? Four takes… 1. “The recording of personal testimony delivered in oral form” (Yow, 2005, p. 3). 2. “Memories and personal commentaries of historical significance through recorded interviews” (Ritchie, 2003, p. 19). 3. “A sound recording of historical information, obtained through an interview that preserves a person's life history or eyewitness account of a past event" (“Discovering,” 2008, p. 1). 4. “A primary-source material created in an interview setting with a witness to or a participant in an event or way of life for the purpose of preserving the information and making it available to others” (Sommer & Quinlin, 2009, p. 1). Some terms often used interchangeably with oral history: self-report, personal narrative, life story, life testament, life biography, life review, recorded memories, recorded memoir, etc.

Demarcation / Four Falsehoods: • What oral history is not: • Journalism • Folklore • A structured interview • A sound byte • Monologic • Why is each of the above not oral history?

ScopeWhere is Oral History Situated? • Historical Scope • Before the written word… • Academic Scope • Formal recognition of “oral history” • Modern Scope • Sample areas of practice • Interview topics/themes

“Real” Oral History History Where is oral history and why should I care? .

Academic Oral History History • 1948 – The first O.H. office was started by historian Allan Nevins @ Columbia University • The focus was on preserving diplomatic history from those diplomats who did not leave behind memoirs. • O.H. takes off during the 1960s & 1970s • e.g. Alex Haley, Studs Terkel, Oscar Lewis • OHA established

The Scope of Oral History Practice:Topics from the 2009 OHA Conference Oral History as Art and Advocacyframes panels that explore the full range of artistic dimensions of oral history, recognizing that advocacy is embedded in many of these interpretive performances. Oral History as Teaching and Service Learningprovides a framework for panels that examine a range of issues involved in student training, and has been deployed to build communities and knowledge through university and school interaction. Oral History as Film and Imageprovides a border for those panels that connect images to oral history, either through photography or film. Oral History and Folklife in Communityis an umbrella for panels that consider the boundaries of community or the ways that oral history and folklife contributes to the community-building process. Oral History as Activism and Social Justiceis a thread that borders and encompasses work with a strong commitment to social, political, and/or economic change, recognizing the often implicit underpinnings of many oral history projects. Oral History in Museums, Archives, and Digital Environmentsprovides a rubric through which to consider two disparate, though often interconnected, trends: the development of digital tools and exhibit formats and the expansion of oral history use in museums, as well as increased attention to the archiving of oral histories. Oral History as Research Methodologyprovides a thematic structure for panels that use oral history in service of a disciplinary research endeavor or take on oral history as a mode of understanding.

Topics/Themes in the Oral History Landscape • Specific historical events • Childhood • Teenage years • Family history & norms • Individual & community interests • Vocation & retirement • Military experiences • Marriage/ family history • Spiritual / religious life • Worldviews: attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, opinion • Folklore, superstitions, customs, myths • Cultural celebrations: holidays • Death and dying • Etc.

Why [study/practice/do] Oral History? • The crisis • Importance • General • Learning

Snapshot of the Crisis in Knowledge

In other words… An event occurs Evidence is left behind and created Environments threaten survivalof records Archives preserve what exists & provide access Opportunities toEduce Donora Smog, 9/11 attacks, JFK election, etc. Artifacts, diaries, photographs, etc. Fires, floods, hungry dogs trash, etc. Archives, libraries, repositories, museums, person collections Possibility for Learning

Why is Oral History Important, Generally? • Historical documents and books can't tell us everything about our past. • Written history often concentrates on famous people and big events, and tend to miss the ordinary people living ordinary lives. • Written history often neglects people on the fringes of society, e.g., the poor, disabled, ethnic communities. • Oral history fills the gaps and gives voice to history that includes everyone. Gives “voice to the voiceless.”

Value of Oral Histories in Education • “Oral history not only enriches our understanding of the past, but also holds the potential to dramatically enrich the classroom experience. Oral history projects can help students from early primary grades through the college level learn an amazing range of content knowledge and skills.” - Kathryn Walbert

Why Oral History in the Classroom? • As a primary source, oral histories allow students to interact with the past (e.g., the “history makers”) in a direct way • Empowers students with their own learning • Provides empathic sense of another’s life • Generates student experts • Provides information that isn’t available in other historic sources • Authentic opportunity for students to function as historians or social scientists • It’s fun!

Session One Wrap-upMain Points • Split focus: life history/ eyewitness accts (e.g., Dust Bowl) • Preservation as end goal • Trans-disciplinary in nature • O.H. fills gaps in history and gives “voice to the voiceless” • The historic “bad rap” of oral history has been reframed as positives (e.g., insight into memory, attitudes, perspectives, etc.) • Oral history today often discloses the role of the researcher by expounding on possible biases, interpretations

Session 2: Project Planning • How [to prepare]? • Conducting background research • Theme • Selecting interviewees • Interviewing • Approaches • Questioning • Techniques • Guidelines • Interview Guide • Where? • Recording environment • With? • Technological considerations

Preparation is the Key • Conceptualize the project • What is it that you wish to accomplish? (This is the aim of the Investigative Question). • How do you intend to accomplish it? • Equipment • Questions/outline • Directions • Release forms • Prompts • Review your checklist • Know your narrator

Learning Oral History • “The only way to learn how to do it [conduct an oral history] is to do it” (Truesdell, 2007, p. 1). • Oral history interviews are “learning events for the interviewer” (Portelli, 2009).

Finding Participants • Purposive Sampling: • “Those interviewed are specific individuals selected because of their often unique relationship to the topic at hand” (Yow, 2005, p. 360).

Questioning Example #1: The Holocaust Q: Did you know anyone in the concentration camp? A: Umm, yes. This is a closed-ended question.

Questioning Example #2: The Holocaust • Q: How does it feel to know people who were in the concentration camps? • A: I lost 27 relatives in the Holocaust, a grandfather, many uncles, aunts, and cousins. They were sent to Auschwitz, sometime in June 1944. In 1935, when I was 10 years old, I visited these relatives with my parents and sister in Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine). All these years later I had a remembrance of these relatives. Needless to say our family felt the tragic effects of this news for these many years later. • This is an open-ended question.

Process of Questioning • Gain practice turning closed-ended questions into open-ended questions…  What do you remember about your grandparents?  What was your grandfather’s name?  What kind of reception did Italians immigrants receive when they moved into town?  Was there prejudice against Italians moving to your town?

Sample Questioning StructureVHP • “Six Segments” format • 1. For the Record • Date and place of the interview • Name and birth date of the person being interviewed • War and branch of service • What his or her rank was • 2. Jogging Memory • Were you drafted or did you enlist? • Why did you pick the service branch you joined? • Do you recall your first days in service? • Tell me about your boot camp/training experience(s). • How did you get through it? • 3. Experiences • Which war(s) did you serve in (WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf)? • Where exactly did you go? • Do you remember arriving and what it was like? • What was your job/assignment? • Did you see combat? • Were there many casualties in your unit? • Tell me about a couple of your most memorable experiences.

Sample Questioning StructureVHP • 4. Life • How did you stay in touch with your family? • Did you have plenty of supplies? • Did you feel pressure or stress? • Was there something special you did for "good luck"? • How did people entertain themselves? • Did you keep a personal diary? • 5. After Service • Do you recall the day your service ended? • What did you do in the days and weeks afterward? • Did you make any close friendships while in the service? • Did you join a veterans organization? • 6. Later Years and Closing • Did your military experience influence your thinking about war or about the military in general? • How did your service and experiences affect your life?

Technological Considerations • Important to use best equipment available. • If the quality is poor, the source may be unusable • Digital equipment • Audio or Video • Non-compressed recording

Session Two: Main Points • Oral history work involves practical skills. The art of oral history is gained by way of “learning by doing.” • Technology? • Environment?

Session 3: Post-interview Outcomes • Now what? • Thematic/topical time-log • Transcription • Outlets for oral history

Listening / Time-log Activity Clip from an oral history with Howard Zinn, PhD. Recorded by telephone in California, PA on October 03, 2008

Sound-clip: Follow-up themes/questions Other experiences regarding the trip to England across the AtlanticMore on the living conditions for enlisted men and officers More on African-Americans living in the engine room How strong did racism resonate with other officers/enlisted soldiers?How did the black soldier react after you put the sergeant in his place?What did your ‘political lecture’ entail?When was this? Food quality. Was food the same for the 4th shift?How have you used this “very important lesson” (choosing between principles) at other times in your life?Is 16,000 accurate? Triangulate “the first integration dining room in World War II”

Transcription Process • The final product of most oral history interviews—the published transcript—is but a monologic representation of a dialogic “performance” (Portelli, 2009). • Q: Is the interviewer involved or disinterested? Is it evident in the process of doing the interview, time-log, or transcription that the interviewer is an active part of the oral history?

Outlets: Post-Oral HistoryWhat can we do now? • Teaching / education • Exhibit / preservation • Writing / publication • Theatrical production • Media projects

Methodological and Ethical Considerations • Suffering presentism: Viewing the past through a lens in the present • Role of the interviewer as involved participant • Rights of the interviewee • Harm to interviewee (IRB) • Options for transcription • Factual errors preserved in memory (an event): • Validation / triangulation • Representation

Ethics and Privacy • No taping without narrator’s knowledge • Recording without narrator’s knowledge is invasion of privacy • Doesn’t hurt to get narrator’s permission on tape • Explain why and how oral histories will be used • Don’t make promises you can’t keep • Interviewers and transcribers must understand: this is confidential until completed. • Remind narrators that information will be made public • Revealing too much about personal life • Revealing too much about ANOTHER person’s life

References • Discovering oral history. (2008). Workshop on the Web, Introduction to Oral History. Waco, TX: Baylor University Institute for Oral History. Retrieved January 29, 2010, from http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/66419.pdf • Kvale, S. (2007). Doing interviews. The SAGE Qualitative Research Kit. Los Angeles: Sage. • Kvale, S. (1996). InterViews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. • Morrissey, C. T. (2006). Oral history interviews from inception to closure. In Charlton, T. L., Myers, L. E., and Sharpless, R. (Eds.), Handbook of oral history (pp. 170-206). Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press. • Oral History Evaluation Guidelines. (2000). Pamphlet Number 3, Oral History Association. Retrieved November 6, 2009, from http://www.oralhistory.org/do-oral-history/oral-history-evaluation-guidelines/ • Portelli, A. (2009, April 28).The oral history interview: The Methods Lab Annual Lecture. Department of Sociology, University of London. Retrieved October 31, 2009, from http://www.archive.org/details/Oral_History_Interview_Portelli • Ritchie, D. A. (2003). Doing oral history: A practical guide. New York: Oxford University Press. • Rubin, J. R., and Rubin, I. S. (1995). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data. Thousand Oaks: Sage. • Sommer, B. W., and Quinlin, M. K. (2009). The oral history manual. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press. • Shopes, L. (2006). Legal and ethical issues in oral history. In Charlton, T. L., Myers, L. E., and Sharpless, R. (Eds.), Handbook of oral history (pp. 135-169). Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press. • Truesdell, B. (2007). Oral history techniques: How to organize and conduct oral history interviews. Center for the Study of Memory and History, Indiana University. Retrieved November 2, 2009, from http://www.indiana.edu/~cshm/techniques.html • Understanding oral history. (2008). Workshop on the Web, Introduction to Oral History. Waco, TX: Baylor University Institute for Oral History. Retrieved January 29, 2010, from http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/66420.pdf • Yow, V. R. (2005). Recording oral history: A guide for the humanities and social sciences.Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

That’s it for today!any questions? Teaching with Primary SourcesCollege of Education and Human Services California University of Pennsylvania roberts_n@calu.edu 724- 938-6022 Keystone 112

Teaching with Primary Sources: The Oral History Component July 2010