CRAFTING HISTORY: ON ORAL HISTORY PROJECTS, EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING, AND A MEDITATION ON TEACHING AND LEARNINGTeaching History 2013, 38(1): 23-38.
Oral history has earned a well-deserved place in the academy, especially among professional historians.' This article grows out of an effort to wed the use of oral history to instruction in an entry-level World History course. At its foundation, the project aimed to strengthen students' skills in communication and critical thinking, to deepen student learning of basic course themes, to increase student knowledge of specific facts and events in the course, and to enhance a sense of democratic empathy among the students. A primary goal of the oral history project was to encourage the students to see themselves as participants, rather than "neutral observers," in the process of understanding and analyzing historical phenomena. 2 The project created a space within which students could analyze course topics through a critical lens on power and privilege, race, gender, class, and identity.
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