Experiencing Oral History With Prospective Social Studies Teachers

Abstract It is known that oral history studies have a positive effect on students’ learning, skills, attitudes, and motivations. In this direction, it has an important place in the context of student-centered constructivist practices in teaching different subjects in social studies courses. Social studies teachers should have sufficient knowledge and skills about oral history to carry out effective studies in their classes. Hence, the training of teachers in this context during their undergraduate period is of great importance. This study aims to share the experiences of oral history studies conducted by prospective teachers attending the department of social studies education at a state university in Türkiye. Within the scope, the prospective teachers’ oral history studies under the lecturer’s guidance were examined and evaluated by considering the determined criteria. By making inferences and sharing experiences about this process, it was thought that researchers, teacher educators, and teachers could be given an idea about the issues that should be considered in the oral history practices in teaching. The data collection methods of this research which was realized in the case study design, were observation, document examination, and interview. Content and descriptive analysis methods were used in the analysis of the data. As a result, it was determined that prospective teachers had difficulties in some stages of oral history research and at the same time, they achieved significant gains. Based on the experience gained from the research, some suggestions were made to improve similar studies and classroom practices.