Is Half a Loaf Better than None? Reflections on Oral History Workshops

Inspired by concerns about the efficacy of my own oral history trainings, this article explores the role that workshops have played in oral history pedagogy and ponders their ubiquity today. As it turns out, workshops were foundational to the methodology and have been staples of instruction from its beginnings. They are so commonplace that sponsors virtually take them for granted, and they have attracted little critical attention. In this essay I consider a workshop model that National Park Service coworkers and I have designed, and with the help of peers, consider the strengths and weaknesses of short trainings. In other words, the question is: Is half a loaf of oral history instruction better than none? Or, even in a short training, can you convey some of the complexities of oral history?