Transcript УСТНА ИСТОРИЯ – ТЕОРЕТИЧНА РАМКА И ПРАК

ORAL HISTORY – THEORETICAL
FRAME AND PRACTICAL
DIRECTIONS
VIOLETA STOYCHEVA
UNIVERSITY OF VELIKO TARNOVO, BULGARIA
The Current Trends
Increasing interest of the people toward their own
social roots;
Disintegration of the world of the communist past
leading to “a great number of incommensurable
worlds” and explosion of collective memories
(Пренаписванията.... 1995:18)
Extending the idea of the past, including the
events of the end of the 20th century, and
offering a new view about these events in
textbooks and supplementary books in history.
Didactic Reflections
Applying multi-perspective and multi-cultural
approach - methodology, aiming at the recreation
of the picture of the past as a multi-layer process;
New accents in choosing the school contents everyday life, family, women, small ethnical
communities, memory etc.
Extending the construction of the historical
account - various sources including those of Oral
history.
Change in the ways of teaching history - accent
toward technological aspects of studying.
Theoretical Frame
Oral History:
Constructing the evidence of the ones who took part in a
certain events or the direct eyewitnesses of certain events
(Tabakova).
is a record and an analysis of shared memories about the
past;
is one of the many tools through which people communicate
with each other;
“Instrument for gathering of data/materials”.
A way to present history, including stories about the past
that are told by people who eye witnessed them.
Theoretical Frame
Being a researcher’s tool, Oral History is
preserving the evidence of the everyday life, the
stories of individuals about their experiences,
feelings and their attitude towards past events in
which they were directly involved or eye witnessed
them.
The shared knowledge about the past gives the
opportunity to go deeper into the meaning of the
past that these people put in their understanding
of the past.
This way, Oral History can be considered as a
methodology and an additional tool of exploring
past events.
Specific Features of the Oral Sources:
the: “Work” with Memory
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Memory as an enormous store of various information;
The role of the long-lasting memory – actualizing of the stored
information gives birth to the “memories”;
Before remembered facts have to be realized (L. Barsalou: 1988);
The process of understanding sets the principles of coding the
memories;
In the evidence of certain events not only are concrete facts
included, but also more general notions, so called personal memory;
Hierarchical organization of the memory premises; the
remembering of not only joined facts, but the ones connected
consecutively;
The facts are grouped together in categories, arranged according
to their significance to the individual.
Which are the Specific
Features of the Oral Sources?
Professional history – reconstructs the past in
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chronological frame, clear and concrete time and
space.
Oral Sources - work with the space through “its
unique consistent images”, which are complex –
geographical situation, physical environment, other
persons involved, memorized feelings and moods,
as well as other minor matters.
Characteristic features: description of situations
instead of description of developing linear events,
localization and inserted “somebody’s else” stories
(Gavrilova 2004:352-353).
Which are the Specific
Features of the Oral Sources?
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The oral evidence as means for reconstruction of
sectors which do not transfer their experience in
written form / history of women, family,
minorities, children/.
Adequate tool for reconstructing the diversity in
situations, when the reality seems complex and
multilayered.
Theoretical Frame:
Oral Evidences in Teaching
History
Packing the pictures of everyday life from
different epochs and giving the chance of going
beyond the traditional narration “ peace treaties
and battles", focusing on the anonymous , the
collective, where every individual can recognize
him/herself (Aries 1998:23);
Construction of different points of view in
comparison to the traditional one in the lesson
gives the opportunity to the pupils who want to
know more in order to give meaning to the birth of
the historical fact/event “in the dramatic conflict
between the personal intentions and the general
circumstances” (Kazakow 1994:18 ).
The Oral Evidences in
Teaching History
Assists the restoration of the diversity of events,
that happened in the recent and distant;
Contribute to the understanding of what events
from the past meant for the ordinary people, in
this way constructing the social knowledge as the
other side of the official political history;
Creating personal memory about certain events
and extending the collective memories; completing
the white spaces of the untold in the historical
memory of the society;
The Oral Evidences in
Teaching History
Allow to see the change of our personal
perceptions about time, in which we live, revealing
the unwritten traces of the memories, pictures
and oral stories ;
Give chance to the pupils to create their own oral
evidences and to make their own conclusions on
the basis of comparison of these sources with the
information from other documents;
Develop critical thinking, responsibility, empathy
and communication skills in different
environments. (by Stradling 2001:214-215).
Pupils...
In practice, the students are creating oral
evidence by themselves while analyzing the
evidence
During the process of their education, the young
people must be incorporated in the collection of
oral evidence as a part of the common process of
conservation and relaying of the historical and
collective memory of the Bulgarians
Classification of the Oral
Evidence (by R. Stradling )
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Evidence of the past received by previous
generations (oral tradition);
Story about life of a separate person, who can
characterize them and make them significant (oral
biography);
Personal memories of persons for events,
situations or experiences, typical for a period of
time;
Stories of eyewitnesses, taken during or right
after an event took place
Practical Directions:
Techniques of the Oral History
Students’ skills for collecting oral
evidence are linked with learning
some of the basic techniques of
collecting this information:
conversation,
inquiry,
family tree,
interview
Technological aspects
Example 1: The Oral evidence as additional source for
defining reliability of non-formal documents
Activities: Step 1: Analysis of a photography from
the position of a participant in the event
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Pupils are receiving a task to write a
short story (or describe a situation),
connected with the creation of the
picture, as taking part of the event
(one from the two women, observer
or photographer).
The photography is given to the
pupils without other information. In
order for them to find out the
information, they are using the basic  Fulfilling the task is even more
appealing, when it is given as a group
questions, facilitating the
activity. One of the pupils is asked to
description.
share the results of the group work.
Step 2: Writing a Questionnaire about the
Reliability of the Document
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After all the groups present their results the common points
and the differences that are connected with the previous
analysis of the photography are outlined;
The next task asks for all the groups to make a list with
questions concerning the reliability of the document. All the
questions are enumerated on a joint poster or if there is more
time, the pupils construct an “intellectual map”
The discussion about the reliability of the document presumes
comparison on the statements of the pupils with the real facts,
connected with the transformation of the social role of the
woman during the Socialist regime, the participation of the
rural/peasant women in TKZS, the modernization of the
everyday life in Bulgaria etc.
Step 3: Private Memory and Oral Bibliography
as an Additional Source of Information
The teacher gives the pupils a memory about the
creation of the photograph and data about the
biography of one of the women, connected with her
family and the work of the young couple in the local
TKZS.
The pupils have to find out facts that illustrate their
statements in proving the reliability of the analyzed
document and to add them to the list of questions.
After discussing the suggestions the teacher shows the
method of crossing the overlapping statements of the
analysis done, the questions that were asked and the
information from the evidence of the eyewitnesses.
TASK
Construct a short
story (not more than
10 sentences) to
present the story of
the photograph given.
You have 15 minutes
for work.
Individual farm, 1962
Example 2: The Oral Evidence as instrument for
making the picture of Basic Historical Processes
Activities: Step 1: Analysis of “Blind” source and creation of
collective list of questions that need additional information
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Pupils are divided in small
groups. They receive a visual
source without any indicators.
Задачата е да озаглавят по
подходящ начин снимката.
Next step is a discussion on the
missing information.
Next task is the creation of a
list of questions requesting
 The teacher explains the
additional information.
possibilities of the interview as a
method of gathering information
and shows the way to do this.
Step 2: Interviewing eyewitnesses
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Teacher suggests for the class to be divided into several teams.
In the teams pupils are grouped in pairs. Each of the pairs
receives one photography that shows celebration of important
event from the socialist period in their local
surrounding/city/town/community.
The teams receive the following tasks:
 To identify the document – event, that reveals the time
of the creation, and the persons involved.
 To find out other living evidences of the event;
 To conduct an interview with eyewitnesses of the event;
 To conduct interviews with respondents from different
generations (including ones belonging to one family), with
diverse ethnical and religious background for the
celebrations in the time of Socialism;
 To prepare a presentation about the gathered
information
Step 3: Organizing a Seminar on the Topic:
“Everyday Life and Official Holidays during the
Time of Socialism”
 An expert team from the teacher of history and
one member of each of the teams is formed. They
are supposed to prepare and explain the criteria for
the evaluation of the results of the research work.
 Each of the teams presents what was done during
their work.
 A joint discussion follows on the topic of the
seminar.
Conclusion:
The oral evidence allows for the acquaintance with the
methods of the historical knowledge as well the
construction of personal knowledge about the past on the
basis of specific proofs.
Constructing written texts while using oral evidence is
“irreversible”, inner-peculiar activity which is part of all
stages of the oral history research.
By giving the students the opportunity to construct the
social biography of the History of everyday life, we aid
the processes of a clearer rationalization of the
contemporary reality.
In this way the Oral history throws a bridge toward
universal acceptance, participation and social
competences.