The problem of the thesis is to develop rationale for the teaching of local history in the schools through the use of recorded documentary statements by eyewitnesses to local events. As illustrative of this mode of teaching local history, a series of recordings are made in which the residents of the Pomona, California, area who were eyewitnesses to the local events or who could relate reliable hearsay about the history of Pomona are interviewed. A research methodology for the taking, editing, and cataloguing of these tape recordings for school use is developed and executed.

Molly Welsh, oral tradition captured in the nineteenth century tells us, was a white Englishwoman who worked as an indentured servant. The same tradition has it that she owned slaves, although she is said to have married (or formed a union with) one of them. I aim not only to recover the life of Molly Welsh Banneker, but also to consider its various tellings—probing in particular at Molly’s shifting racial status. By examining a multiplicity of social and cultural aspects of life for seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Maryland women, I test whether these various narratives are even possible or plausible reconstructions of the Molly Welsh story. My project thus sheds light on the woman Molly Welsh was, how her story was constructed, what factors contributed to the retelling of her story, and why and at what point various narratives deviate from each other. By comparing the various Molly Welsh/Benjamin Banneker narratives it is possible to uncover or at least posit the most reliable narrative, while at the same time coming to a greater understanding of how such historically undocumented stories are constructed and what part memory plays in their reconstruction. An extensive bias informs many of these narratives, shaped by the various “memories” generated by family loyalty, by the growing tensions between the North and the South over slavery, by Reconstruction, and by new standards in historical accuracy that appeared with the founding of the American Historical Association in 1884. While Molly Welsh may appear to be a near-silent character in her grandson Benjamin Banneker’s story, it is possible that new discoveries will be made that further verify (or refute) the long-standing tradition that Molly Welsh was a white English dairymaid transported to Maryland and that she married one of her own slaves by whom she had four daughters. Recent interest in new ways of approaching history, a greater acceptance of oral traditions as an important historical source, and a renewed appreciation for exploring stories of the untold masses, including women and minorities, may someday locate Molly’s voice and allow her to speak for herself. The chances of uncovering Molly Welsh’s story through documentary sources has improved with the recent emergence of powerful databases and electronic search tools have made many things possible that once were not (ancestry.com, the Old Bailey records for example). And then, perhaps Molly might come to represent other seventeenth-century women who married or had children with African men, like Eleanor Atkins who had a “Molattoe” child and who subsequently received twenty-four lashes for her crime, Elizabeth Day who admitted before the court that she had an illegitimate “Malatto” child by a “Negro man named Quasey belonging to her master,” or Eleanor Price who pleaded guilty to “Fornication with a Negro Man named Peter Belonging to Mr. John Walker,” received twenty-one lashes, and whose child, Jeremiah, was bound out until the age of twenty-one. Through their stories we might come to accept that one of the few choices these women had may have been with whom they had a child, though even this is subject to question. Regardless, Molly Welsh’s story is one that does not appear to stand alone. Through her we might see how women survived their indentures and prospered, or managed at the very least to endure life in Maryland, women whose lives until now never managed to become a footnote in anyone’s biography.

This thesis proposes a series of methodological suggestions covering all stages of oral history research – from the production to the dissemination of the interviews. It starts from the video interviews collected between 2003 and 2007 by the South Tyrolean historian Giorgio Delle Donne, which constitute the basis of the Oral History Archive of the Italian Provincial Library ‘Claudia Augusta’ (Bolzano). Using both oral history and archival methodology, the thesis retraces the life and the work of the historian, explaining the reasons behind the collection of the interviews, as well as the history of the library that preserves these oral sources. Furthermore, a wide-ranging reflection on the transcription of interviews illustrates how the scholarly debate has involved three major 'oral schools' (British, Italian, and American) for decades. This introduction is followed by several tests of automatic speech transcription conducted on the interviews collected by Delle Donne, which show how technology can support transcription work – which, however, always requires human work in the end. The status quaestionis of the decade-long debate on archiving oral source involving researchers, archivists, and librarians reveals the difficulty in identifying common standards for interview description. The author proposes thus some practical suggestions on how to preserve the interview and how to better integrate these sources into the library catalogue. The thesis concludes with new ideas for the development of the oral history collection kept in the ‘Claudia Augusta’ library. Despite being based on a specific case, the suggested practical advice can be used by other institutions that preserve oral sources, and also by individual researchers interested in oral history. Full accessibility, guaranteed only by a good preservation of the interviews, is a fundamental tool to promote the personal stories of the interviewees. The importance of preservation unites oral history and archival management. Oral history is a conversation about the past that happens in the present and is future-oriented; similarly, archiving means choosing, interpreting, and keeping traces that would otherwise be erased. The archive is not about the past, it is about the future.

This study investigates the experience of British (English, Scottish and Welsh) emigrants to the United States in the 1860-1940 period. It is based on the analysis of two large corpora of oral histories, about 180 interviews in total, preserved in libraries as well as archives and libraries’ special collections and manuscript departments scattered throughout the United States. In particular, the thesis draws on the interviews conducted by the Ellis Island Oral History Project researchers since the 1970s and the “life histories” gathered by the Federal Writers’ Project fieldworkers during the New Deal era. The critical examination of these sources makes it possible to shed new light on an extended period of British emigration to the United States, including the decades following 1900, which have largely been neglected by scholars so far. In fact, the FWP life histories of British immigrants have never been tapped by scholars before, and the same is true as regards the Ellis Island accounts, with the exception of the interviews with Scottish immigrants. The Introduction to the thesis presents the subject, scope, structure and objectives of the work, also providing a brief overview of the historiography in the field; the first chapter discusses both the reliability of oral histories as historical sources and their peculiarities; the second chapter specifically deals with the Ellis Island and Federal Writers’ Project interviews, on the fieldworkers’ research strategy and the interview approach they adopted, providing an in-depth critical analysis of the strengths and limits of the documents on which the dissertation’s conclusions are based. The following chapters trace the experiences of men and women who left Great Britain for the U.S. by dwelling upon the pre-emigration, emigration proper and post-emigration phases, and identify common aspects in Britons’ migratory experience as well as differences due to their age, gender and nationality. The analysis of the post-emigration phase focuses on Britons’ economic conditions, work activity and social mobility in America, as well as on cultural and identity issues. In particular, the last two sections of the thesis put to the test the widespread notions of British immigrants’ economic success and of their cultural “invisibility” in America. In fact, the evidence offered by the Ellis Island and Federal Writers’ Project oral histories challenge the image of Britons as successful immigrants who blended into American society relatively quickly and easily.

No description available.

In 1968, in the midst of the Civil Rights Era, the Louisiana government created the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL). During this period of heightened ethnic awareness, CODOFIL aimed to rectify the damage done by prior Louisiana legislation, which prohibited French language on public school grounds. In an effort to revitalize the French language in Louisiana, the organization hired teachers from foreign francophone countries and advocated for a curriculum rooted in Standard French. According to historians, many locals felt Louisiana-specific French dialects were once again rejected. Alongside these foreign teachers were teachers local to Louisiana. Utilizing interviews with Louisiana natives who became French teachers in the state, this paper aims to add to the narrative by presenting their discussion of the topic. The interviews consistently refute claims that local educators were opposed to CODOFIL’s hiring of foreign teachers. In addition, the interviews explore the strides these teachers made in revitalizing Louisiana French in spite of CODOFIL’s complicated founder, James Domengeaux.

Based on a narrative analysis of data collected on behalf of the Trauma Healing Project in Eugene, Oregon this project considers the responses of 50 digital storytelling workshop participants (26 storytellers and 24 assistants), collected as audio recordings of closing circles, written evaluations, and post-workshop interviews. The data are organized by themes and then ranked according to frequency. For both the storytellers and assistants, the personal experience of participating in a digital storytelling workshop is overwhelmingly positive, with transformative insights being the most common experience. According to their responses, both storytellers and assistants experience increased feelings of self-efficacy, personal growth, and self-confidence directly after completing a digital storytelling workshop.

O tema desta pesquisa é a escola rural e o problema da escolarização de crianças de Atibaia, estado de São Paulo. O período estudado tem como marco inicial o ano de 1964, quando ocorreu o Golpe Militar até 1985 ano que marcou o início da nova redemocratização brasileira. Foi realizado um estudo da escolarização de crianças em escolas rurais, enfatizando os papéis integrador e socializador da escola junto aos filhos dos trabalhadores nascidos na região, além de migrantes que se estabeleceram em dois bairros rurais de Atibaia, Portão e Água Espraiada. Abordam- se as diferenças existentes na população rural, tanto em relação às condições materiais de vida, quanto à produção dos bens simbólicos, papéis anteriormente contemplados pela escola. Para compreender esse processo, optou-se metodologicamente pelas técnicas da História Oral, entrelaçadas aos estudos da memória, enquanto fenômeno social. Através da realização de entrevistas semi estruturadas, foram coletadas informações que contribuíram para a compreensão da complexidade das questões que envolvem o campo brasileiro e a educação escolar de sua população. / The theme of this research is the rural school and the problem of access and education of childrens from Atibaia, State of Sao Paulo. The study period is from 1964, when there was the military coup, to 1985, marked by the beginning of Brazilian democracy. The study focused on rural schools and their integrating and socialing role in the education of workers and migrants families located in two rural districts of Atibaia, Portão and Água Espraiada neighborhoods. To understand this process, the oral history methodology was chosen, and memory studies as a social phenomenon. By carrying out semi-structured interviews, information was collected that contributed to the understanding of the complexity of the issues surrounding the Brazilian countryside and the education of its population.

Esta pesquisa buscou pensar as relações de experiência, memória e oralidade como dimensões de uma linha específica de história oral que cada vez mais se pretende autônoma e pública. Essas relações foram feitas a partir de duas formas narrativas: uma contada - construída em colaboração durante entrevistas com procedimentos dessa história oral e outra narrativa cantada - composição musical que Adálio Pereira de Oliveira, um nordestino na Amazônia, fez para contar sua história de vida. Essa linha de história oral valoriza os aspectos subjetivos das experiências narradas e possui pressupostos epistemológicos claros: a colaboração, a mediação e a dimensão pública do texto produzido. / This research intended to think about experiences and their relations, memories and orality as dimensions of a specific oral history hat becomes more autonomous and public. Those relations were maid from two narrative forms: one: spoken built on interviews with a certain oral history procedures and the other: narrative song-composed that Adálio Pereira de Oliveira, a northeastern in Amazon, made to tell his history of life. This oral history line values the subjective aspects of narrated experiences and clear epistemological beddings: common work, mediation and the public dimension of the document.

In 2007 a new government-funded initial teacher training programme was introduced in China. Emergent problems associated with the implementation of this policy call for a new research agenda that is able to illuminate aspects of the history of teacher education in China. Through the exploration of the hidden and often untold stories of ordinary teachers’ lives from the past, this research project seeks to construct a more authentic and comprehensive historical account of teacher education in China from 1949 to 1982. It also strives to help in raising an awareness among teachers, researchers and policy makers of the significance of reflecting on the history of teacher education, in both individual and collective ways. Three types of qualitative sources, namely documentary, visual and oral data were assembled from archival and online searches, and by the conducting of 40 in-depth oral history interviews. Drawing on former student teachers’ testimonies, this thesis investigates key features and major trends marking the formal pattern of the Chinese teacher education system since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China. It is argued that despite a number of radical structural and theoretical changes brought about by political campaigns over time, from the perspective of the student teachers themselves, continuities were more fundamental in this particular historical period. Aspects central to these continuities were a tiered teacher education system and two major approaches to teacher training. Compared to teacher education in the higher education sector, the normal school approach was recognised as having a systematic advantage in preparing teachers for classroom teaching. This dissertation also scrutinises the impact of educational reforms upon the teaching profession and teachers’ identities (individual and collective) from a rhetorical perspective. Evidence from a variety of documents, visual materials and interviewees’ recollections suggests that, as an inherent linguistic and cultural characteristic of the Chinese language, metaphor, together with narratives and other literary devices, plays an important role in shaping key concepts relevant to teacher education in China. The thesis resists conventional perceptions which associate a collectivist ethos among teachers chiefly with political propaganda, attributing it rather with traditional Chinese cultural values.