Train Rural Teachers to Teach Oral History

Dear Friends,

As part of “Footfall: Listening to Family Memory” oral history program, the teacher training started on July 10^th this summer, and it will go all the way to the end of August.

20 seed teachers from 10 rural schools are following the course process to complete an interview for a family/village elder. After 4 weeks of studying the online materials with the help of weekly online discussion sessions, teachers did initial interviews and are now doing background research for a more focused 2^nd interview. The climax of this training, is an offline workshop in Kaili No. 1 High School, Guizhou. Three facilitators, including Prof. Hu from Yunnan University, Yu and Vicky from EEF will guide the teachers to practice key steps, reflect on what they’ve learned, and collect feedback to improve the course design.

Want to see what Kaili workshop will look like? Attached is the workshop programme for your reference in English.

Want to know what teachers are thinking of the training so far and the upcoming workshop? Let me introduce these teachers to you so you can listen to their feedback (in Chinese) online:

1)       Lei, an oral history first-timer, shared with us her view on the online learning experience:

http://evergreeneducation.org/oralhistory/data/2017_training_feedback/Lei.mp3

2)       Yun is guiding students this year to interview village artists, such as opera mask maker and coffin painter. He shared with us what he has done and learned from this training so far:

http://www.evergreeneducation.org/oralhistory/data/2017_training_feedback/Yun.mp3

3)       Fu did an oral family history pilot project in 2013 and has contributed greatly in helping molding the course. He shared with us how he felt about the learning process:

http://www.evergreeneducation.org/oralhistory/data/2017_training_feedback/Fu.mp3

4)       Ting did a great oral history project on Hua’er, a northwestern folksong and the local singers for three years, with her students. She shared with us her expectation of the Kaili Workshop:

http://www.evergreeneducation.org/oralhistory/data/2017_training_feedback/Ting.mp3

Our Kaili gathering is getting closer and all facilitators share the same level of excitement as our teachers:)

Please let us know what you think about this training, and share with us any comments and suggestions you may have.

Best,

Yu

• 2017 Oral History Workshop Programme (PDF)