My paper mirrors the experience of teaching at a new established M.A. studies at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague which is called Oral history – Contemporary History, and was launched in fall 2008. The first semester has raised some important methodological and organisational issues which I would ...
(Show more)My paper mirrors the experience of teaching at a new established M.A. studies at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague which is called Oral history – Contemporary History, and was launched in fall 2008. The first semester has raised some important methodological and organisational issues which I would like to discuss here.
30 students who applied for this M.A. studies are following the accreditation by the Ministry of Education in 2008. The M.A. studies are divided into two sections – methodological and historical. The methodological part consists of courses in oral history, its methodological and technical apects, i.e. recording, processing the recordings, archiving, legal and ethical issues, as well as the principles of OH material analysis and interpretation. The second, historical section, consists of courses in contemporary history as well as „traditional“ historiography (e.g. heuristics).
During the first year, we have come across some important issues. Some of them are connected with the organisation of the M.A. studies at the level of the university and our department, other derive from the „philosophy“ of the accreditation. One of the most important deals with methodics of teaching methodology of OH. We have classes that deal with technical and practical aspects of recording and archiving, but limited possibilities to „try it on“. We teach various theoretical aspects of OH, analysis and interpretation, also at the basis of the logic of qualitative research in general, but students come rarely in touch with the particular interpretations themselves (e.g. through reading of articles and books).
Other issues were raised by students themselves. The most common question in Czech environment (influenced also by the development of OH in the last years) is connected to the definition of OH. Is OH a sampling technique or a discipline? Another very important question is connected with writing M.A. thesis where the interpretation of narrative material is usually the greatest challenge as well as a problem for a student.
My paper is going to deal with all of these key issues, it will present our experience and solutions.
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