Learning through Doing: Preservice Teacher Training in Historical Inquiry through Oral History Projects

Due to the marginalization of social studies in the elementary school, many students are being slighted in social studies instruction resulting in deficits in content knowledge. Although rarely addressed, another unintended consequence of the marginalization of elementary social studies is the lack of preservice teachers' exposure to exemplary instructional strategies. As a teacher educator concerned with adequately preparing preservice teachers, it was necessary to provide opportunities for them to experience exemplary social studies teaching, particularly historical inquiry, that was missing from the field settings. Collecting oral histories provides an active and personal learning experience that integrates other disciplines, an important component in today's high stakes testing environment focusing mainly on reading and math. This paper describes the rationale for choosing oral history as an instructional methodology for preservice teachers as well as the many variations of oral history projects implemented in an undergraduate social studies methods course. In addition, there are many examples of the projects that were created and a step-by-step guide describing the implementation of an oral history project.