What is oral history?
Oral history is a method for understanding the past through story-telling.
The purpose of oral history is to collect, preserve, and study first-person accounts to achieve a more nuanced and grounded understanding of history.
The technique of oral history involves recording interviews between an 'investigator' or researcher and a 'subject', interviewee or narrator.
- "Oral History" entry from Encyclopedia of Life Writing: Autobiographical and Biographical FormsDefinition, description, and application of oral history as a research method.
- StoryCorps: Oral History as Public ServiceStoryCorps is an example of a popular oral history initiative and is one inspiration for the ECOH Project.
Semi-structured Interviews
The ECOH Project uses a semi-structured interview format. This means that the researcher will prepare a list of potential questions to elicit stories and reflections from the interviewee. Once the interview is underway, the researcher may depart from the question list in order to encourage the interviewee to provide more detail on a story.
Interviewees are also encouraged to share stories of their own choosing.
An interviewee can also decline to answer any question put forward by the researcher.
- ECOH Project Semi-structured Interview Sample QuestionsA list of sample questions for the ECOH Project.
- Principles and Best Practices from the Oral History AssociationThe Oral History Association describes techniques, ethics, and best practices for oral history interviews.
- Interviews entry in The A-Z of Social ResearchIncludes a description and explanation of semi-structured interviews.
Adapted from 'StoryCorps' by Steve Rhodes via flickr under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.