Lesson 2:  What is Oral History? Part 2

Instructor should set the stage for what the oral history process looks like (5 minutes)

An oral history is a technique for generating and preserving historical information through interviews.

  • Unlike a typical research process where there is a set procedure for collecting information, an oral history centers the process itself.

Main Content on Oral History (35 minutes)

1.        Have students navigate this website from the Smithsonian in pairs.  Students should answer the questions on a graphic organizer. (15 minutes)

  • Why is a careful oral history practice important?

  • Why conduct oral histories?

  • What does it mean to allow the narrator to do the talking?

    • Hint: ask students to explore what leading questions might look like

 2.        Ask students to share back their list of oral history core principles and jot them down on an easel pad or white board for their future reference. (5 minutes)

Some principles should be:

  • Oral histories are an ethical process:

  • Oral history practitioners should be transparent with the narrator about what they are doing with the interview

  • They should also explain the narrators’ rights

    • Oral history practitioners are mindful of the dynamic between the interviewer and narrator

3.        Share the website of the Path Home Project to reflect on its purpose and mission. (5 minutes)

Students Read Mission silently.

The Path Home is a digital oral history project about the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), groundbreaking bipartisan legislation that provided a pathway to citizenship to almost 3 million undocumented immigrants. IRCA was supposed to “close the back door” to undocumented immigration by expanding border enforcement and imposing penalties on employers who knowingly hired unauthorized workers. At the same time, immigrants rights advocates fought hard and won an IRCA amnesty program that “opened the front door” to undocumented people, welcoming them as legal immigrants and future citizens.

The Path Home collects powerful stories of amnesty recipients and their supporters. These include workers, children, and students who could finally breathe free after amnesty, fierce advocates pushing to ensure immigrants rights were protected in the legislation, and committed frontline staff who worked long hours to ensure as many eligible immigrants as possible could benefit.

Together, their voices illuminate a pivotal moment that transformed society and shaped the contemporary immigrant rights movement.

4.        Group discussion: What are The Path Home’s motivations for conducting and collecting oral histories? (Examples here) (10 minutes)

Instructor should introduce one of the funders The Asian Women Giving Circle.

They are an all-volunteer group of Asian American women in New York City. Their goal is to fund projects led by Asian American women artists and community groups. Look through the projects that they’ve funded--many are oral history projects like the Path Home Project.

Think, Pair, Share

  • Why are oral history projects funded by this grassroots collective?

  • Why would the foundation want to fund this project?

  • Why are their stories important to tell?

Exit Slip (5 minutes)

Whose story would you want to hear? How would you conduct an oral history?

  • Students should refer back to the Smithsonian here