Oral tradition can be defined as the collective product of a society’s all members transferred for generations (Tosh, 1997, p.203). And Oral History can be defined as an approach in which a researcher collects personal memory, reasons and effects of events from an individual or individuals (Creswell, 1998, p.49). On oral history, social historian Thompson, as one of the well-known experts of the world, shortly defined the oral history as a way of history originating from using the memories of people and listening to what they said (Tunçay, 1993, p.9). American oral historian Baum (1987) defined the oral history as recording the evidences said by the narrator through the first-hand knowledge. The information is recorded in answers and questions through previously planned interviews. The interviewer should have knowledge on the subject, and should also have a strong social skill related to how s/he will obtain the knowledge from the narrator. Oral history is not recording the speeches or other social events. Oral history is a kind of history established around people. It introduces life into the history, and it extends its scope. It selects its heroes among the majority of people who have not been known up to that time not only among the leaders. In conclusion, oral history is a type of writing history via the memory-based narrations of individuals in addition to written documents. Oral history is a research method and inter-disciplinary domain supported through the improvement of recording technologies and shaped through the stipulation of including history into the research area. Öztürkmen (1998, 10-16) used an expression as such that when oral history is mentioned, we should understand to evaluate and analyze the information revealed as  result of recorded long speeches and made with people related to a specific event within a specific system. And Somersan (1998) explained oral history as the record of the social events, narrations of acquaintances and memories in general by the people alive through interviews.

Social history in which oral history method is efficiently used is a branch of science analyzing the change, transformation and development of a specific society related to the social life and on which fields and for what purposes the concepts and values have been used.

The most important development in the 20^th century in terms of historiography was tending to fields that are open to multilateral interactions such as society, culture and economy including broader points of views rather than the diplomatic, political and military fields. In this tendency, the role of “new social historians” who wants to relieve the history from the dominance of elite people and understand the past for today and future is significant (Iggers, 2000, p.4–7; Evans, 1999, p.171– 186). Against the dominant, remote and reserved attitude of general history, local histories attracted people through their humanistic, warm and sincere appearances. Whereas general histories innovate and extend themselves, local histories increase rapidly in number. Depending upon this, many historians who studied history have recently inclined to local fields. Local history studies introducing the reader to well-known and familiar faces started to expand its limited resources and benefited from oral tradition. To achieve this, it has become inevitable for history to apply for the other information produced by other disciplines (sociology, anthropology, ethnology, folklore, demography, etc.). Besides the documents, data-based studies of these disciplines expanded the society history  studies,  and  provided  local  histories  to have more colorful appearances away from the defined limits of the general history. In parallel with the interest of several amateur historians writing on history, a discussion was started related to “the history near us” and whether this is history or not (Tosh, 1997, p. 197–201).

In parallel with the opportunities provided by the developing communication and welfare, it increased the interest of people on the things around themselves. Through the experienced rapid change, people’s deteriorating the environment they live in proposed to protect this environment having deep meanings of the past or to write if could not be protected (Kyvig and Marty, 2000, p. 110–111). And this has led many relevant-irrelevant researches to lean towards the history studies.

As in many places, much historical information related to recent history has evaporated depending upon the speed of development and change, or disappeared without any trace as if it has never happened. This is mainly caused by the technological improvements. The problem of decreasing documents caused by the rapid change in communication technology has continued increasingly. In recent times when information and ideas are temporary; letters, telegraph gave their place to audiovisual instruments such as TV, cinema, multi-vision and tape recorders, and files and folders were replaced by Internet pages, it is necessary to overcome the decreasing sources of local and general history through developing new methods to collect data.  However, the same technological improvements have also provided opportunities for us to maintain and protect several historical materials of the ancient and recent past (Thompson, 1999).

Besides being a way of writing and a method in which a researcher can obtain the data related to the past, oral history is an important teaching approach that can be used in history and social studies lessons (Hoopes, 1979; Lanman and George, 1989; Moyer, 1993; Whitmann, 2004; Sitton et al., 1983). Oral history is a valuable teaching technique to use with elementary students because it provides a sense of self-identity; nurtures a concept of neighborhood; develops research and writing skills; and encourages a sense of curiosity, wonder, and excitement about history (Mehaffy, 1984). All these revealed the school curriculums and educational policies requiring students to acquire as of the beginning of studentship in elementary education. The experience on “Doing History” (Levstik and Barton, 2011) in educational process of students at elementary, secondary and higher education grades can provide several behavioral changes in students through the oral history activities as mentioned by Demircio?lu (2005). As in the curriculum of modern countries, it was aimed to make students acquire historical knowledge and some similar skills using the oral history method in elementary education (MEB, 2004) and high school curriculums (2008). In 2004 in Turkey, acquisitions and skills were created for pupils in order to make   them acquire experiences on creating a family history and writing based upon objects and oral history method as of the 4^th grade (MEB, 2004).

Implementation of oral history method can be individual as well as realized through group projects. Such kind of oral history group projects creates an intellectual spirit of solidarity instead of a competitive environment dominant in education. The lessons in which the teacher is narrator and the student is listener, and exams give place to history researches carried out altogether. Common research provides teachers and students to be in a closer and less hierarchical relationship creating more chance for a sincere communication. Solidarity becomes mutual. Through these projects, teachers and students become more aware of their places they have in the society. They understand the different values of the people they interview better. To sum up, students actualize a cooperative learning when they participate in oral history activities whether individual or in group projects. These skills that are provided to students by the oral history activities are obtained step by step between the starting and ending of the activity. The skills related to listening, observation and asking questions, differentiating the case from thought, finding the relevant information among the irrelevant one are acquired in band decipher soon after the interview. The skills related to understanding and appraising the previous generations better and perceiving the continuance are acquired after students comparing their own lives and the lives of the people lived in the past (Welton and Mallan, 1999). The basic stages of oral history method as a part of the history-making process that will be benefited for education were listed below.

 

Stages of oral history method

1. Selecting the Location

2. Determining the people to be interviewed

3. Preparing the questions

4. The Place for Interview

5. Organizing the Interview

6. Organizing the Information to be obtained in Interview

7. Teaching Activities based upon the Obtained Data

Reference: (Safran and Ata, 1998; Paykoç, 1991; Stradling, 2001)

The aforementioned stages of oral history method were to provide researcher, teacher, pre-service teacher, and students to acquire the skills mentioned below.

1. The Skills Developed by Oral History Method

2. Listening (during the interview process)

3. Observation (during the interview process)

4. Asking questions (during the interview process)

5. Distinguishing fact from thought (during the interview process and analysis)

6. Finding the relevant information among the irrelevant information (during the interview process and analysis)

7. Understanding and appreciating the previous generations better (during the interview process)

8. Perceiving the change and sustainability (personal comparison)

9. Arranging the information (during the process of analysis and reporting) (Welton and Mallan, 1999; 396).

In Turkey, such studies were carried out in any educational grades, and permanent and sharing samples were presented documenting the results of Past Station: Oral History Train (Metin, 2007). The leading of the acquisitions caused by this process is individuals perceiving the history personally through their own studies, namely their having the role of building the history. 

This research was carried out in a qualitative design. According to Denzin and Lincoln (1994), qualitative research focuses on interpretation of phenomena in their natural settings to make sense in terms of the meanings people bring to these settings. Qualitative research involves collecting information about personal experiences, introspection, life story, interviews, observations, historical, interactions and visual text which are significant moments and meaningful in peoples' lives. This research was carried out with descriptive screening model. Screening models are research approaches aiming to describe a situation present in the past or still present as it is. An event, individual or an object discussed in a research is described as it is in its own conditions (Karasar, 2005, p.77).

 

Study group

This study group included 30 pre-service teachers carried on duty voluntarily in “University Students Are Investigating the Recent History of Ad?yaman: An Oral History Project.” Pre-service teachers applied for their views in this research included 30 students studying at different grades of Ad?yaman University Social Studies Teaching Department in 2009-2010 academic year.  It was a group including 14 males and 16 females. Two 1^st grade, twelve 2^nd grade, fourteen 3^rd grade and 2 4^th grade students participated into the project as active interviewer. The preparation period of the project started in October 2009. The interviews started in February 2010, and ended in late May 2010. Pre-service teachers made and recorded 76 interviews within a 4-month period. In this process, the students were provided to have chance on working in groups. Each student working in pairwise included in at least 2 at most 6 interview process actively. The lower age limit for the people to be inter-viewed was determined as 70. Pens, notebook, name badge and business card of the project manager were distributed to the students for interviews. The students watched and listened to records of different oral history research projects, and read interesting books on oral history research in other cities. The students practiced using the recording equipment such as cameras and audio recorders.

 

Data collection tools

In order to collect data, semi-structured interview technique was used. The research interview was defined as ‘a two-person conversation initiated by the interviewer for the specific purpose of obtaining research-relevant information, and focused by him on content specified by research objectives of systematic description, prediction, or explanation’ (Cohen et al., 2007).

After completing 16-week oral history interviews with the participants of the research, the references in the relevant literature were reviewed by the researcher (Stradling, 2001; Demircio?lu, 2005; Sar?, 2007), the stages, difficulties and obstacles considered to be important in oral history method implementations were collected, and draft interview form including 12 questions was  created. This draft interview form was performed to 5 volunteer students who participated in the project, and the incoherent questions were provided to be understandable, and finalized after the analysis of a linguist. Thirty pre-service teachers participated in the project voluntarily actualized one-by-one face-to-face interviews during the last week of 2010 String term. The interviews lasted for 30 min as average. In terms of the pre-service teachers, the interview process was a reverse form of the experience they had with old people. Because whereas they were the ones asking the questions with a video or tape recorder in the previous 5-6 interviews, now they were the ones who applied for knowledge and asked questions. In this sense, each interview was considered as serving a more important purpose for the interviewed participants and increased their motivation.

 

Data analysis

The data obtained from the participants during the semi-structured interview process were recorded in a camera and tape recorder, and these records were deciphered and put into a Word file word by word. The answers of the same questions asked to the participants were combined in a Word file as linin one under the other, and descriptive analysis was performed. The descriptive analysis was carried out comparing the literature related to oral history method with guide sources (Stradling, 2001; Demircio?lu, 2005; Sar?, 2007). For the analysis of the data obtained during the research, an expert view was asked from an academician who had a master and doctoral degree on Oral History. Similar category and themes by 90% were obtained.

 

Findings and interpretation

Findings and interpretation related to the first sub-problem

Three questions were addressed to the pre-service teachers in order to find an answer to the first sub-problem of the research as “How are the views of Social studies pre-service teachers related to the planning of an efficient oral history interview?”; the obtained data are presented in tables, and views of pre-service teachers were interpreted with direct quotations. The answers of pre-service teachers for the question of how they selected the reference people are listed in Table 1, and supported below with direct quotations. 

 

 

As could be seen in Table 1, the pre-service teachers performed at least 2 and at most 6 each oral history interviews including some criteria while selecting the “reference person.” Ten percent of the pre-service teachers regarded reference person’s being familiar, 27% regarded being experienced and knowledgeable, 10% living in Ad?yaman, 6% being a shopkeeper, having a strong memory, joining social activities in the past, being a good communicator, and being educated and cultured, and 3% being a well-known person, giving accurate information, being able to transfer knowledge and remembering the past well. This was explained in own expressions of the pre-service teachers as such. Related to the criteria of the one who knows the city well and has lived in that city, A3 coded pre-service teacher mentioned that “I regarded the interviewed person to be resident in Ad?yaman. I interviewed the people who know Ad?yaman well, I tried to reach those people. We learned new names to interview from the ones we interviewed.” Related to Social Activities criteria, A23 mentioned that “I regarded the interviewed people to be old, to remember the past well, and to be a person who performed social activities during that period.” Related to being familiar, A12 stated that “They were the people I know, I considered them to make contribution upon our project. They were experienced on this subject. Because my family knew them, I obtained the necessary information from them. My acquaintances helped me with their address and communication information.” In terms of being cultured, A7 stated that “I regarded them to be a little cultured. How can a person who has not been out of her house and has no contact with the people around them provide us accurate information?” In terms of being male, A2 mentioned that “I regarded the person to be male because we could not obtain much information from females.” In terms of being knowledgeable and experienced, A29 mentioned that “We preferred the people we interviewed considering whether they have profound knowledge and can answer the questions we asked or not. We firstly interviewed one, and then we interviewed the other at the recommendation of the previous one.” Again on knowledgeable people, A15 mentioned that “we selected the people we interviewed from the ones over 70 who had knowledge on the old history of Ad?yaman. We reached those people taking the shopkeepers of Ad?yaman as reference.”  In terms of the ones having a good memory, A1 told that “we selected the people we interviewed among the old ones who remembered the past well and who was well-known by the local people of Ad?yaman.”  In terms of being a shopkeeper, A18 mentioned that “I selected the people I interviewed because they were older than 65 years old, they lived in Ad?yaman and they worked as a shopkeeper or barber.”

The views of the social studies pre-service teachers prepared as interviewer for the oral history interviews were categorized in Table 2. In Table 2, 36% emphasized the necessity of appearance, 42% emphasized pre-interview and appointment, 45% emphasized preparing the questions according to properties of people, 30% emphasized searching for the characteristics of the reference person, 9% emphasized reliving the excitement through rehearsals, 27% emphasized technical support and 12% emphasized testing in the stage after making the decision on interviewee.  

 

 

According to Table 2, in terms of the oral history researcher’s process of preparing the interview, whereas A2 coded pre-service teacher mentioned that “We firstly determined the person we will interview. We had a pre-interview. We prepared the questions and we also determined the place and time for the interview. We tried not to get tired for the interview,” the A30 mentioned that “we had pre-interviews in order to speak easily and relieve our excitement. We tried to create a good shooting environment. We cared for dressing formally, and cared also for the interview location to be silent and tidy. A7 used the expression that “I psychologically prepared myself. Because I mostly forgot the questions I want to ask due to getting excited. When I went for the interview on the day of appointment, I used to have a chat before starting to interview, and used to explain what we wanted to do. A13 explained the necessity of testing as “I cared about my clothing, and bought necessary materials because I took what I do serious and I wanted to make interviewees take the project serious. In order not to have a disruption during my speeches, I had a pre-test.”  A22 mentioned related to organizing the questions on preparation process that “We prepared questions for the people to be interviewed before the interview. The main questions were specific; however, we prepared some questions special to the person to be interviewed.”  Related to determining the location, A10 mentioned that “Firstly, I provided the camera and prepared it. I also determined the questions I will ask. If the location to be interviewed was not appropriate, then I took the reference person to a more appropriate place. I made him aware of the questions to be asked, and summarized them shortly. In order to make him trust us, I did my best.”  Related to the appearance, whereas A19 stated that “We made a preliminary preparation before the interview; we determined the questions to be asked. We kept some materials such as camera, tape recorder, notebook, and pencil with us. We felt themselves as a reporter or cameraman. We cared for clothing and being presentable. We clipped our name badges.” A5 mentioned that “I made a short research related to the local history of Ad?yaman before the interviews. I prepared questions according to the age of the interviewee.”

Another stage of the research’s first sub-problem was to convince the reference person considered to be appropriate for interview. To achieve this, categories were created in Table 3 related to the question of how pre-service teachers convinced the reference person for the interview, and the explanation of the table was supported through the direct quotations from pre-service teachers. do not like. They said yes for this.”

 

 

Another stage of the research’s first sub-problem was to reveal how the place to be interviewed should be. To achieve this, the question as “Were the places to be interviewed with the reference people appropriate?” was addressed. Categories were created related to the answers in Table 4, and the explanation of the table was supported through the direct quotations of the pre-service teachers. 

 

 

As could be seen in Table 4, social studies pre-service teachers gave prominence to specific places in terms of interviews with old people mentioned as the reference people to be efficient. The frequency of the places where the interviews were held is presented in Table 4. According to this table, interview places were mostly houses, outer environment, workplace, traditional coffee-houses or offices. They explained the problems that are possible to be encountered in these places. The pre-service teachers emphasized that the house of the interviewee should be preferred as a more efficient interview environment. The problems of this location were the insufficient light for video recordings, intervention of the people living in the house for the interviews, and inter-viewees’ feeling distrust. In interviews made in outer environments, the problems were emphasized as noisy vehicles, and needing a power supply during the recordings. The interviews that were obliged to make interviews in workplaces mentioned that the customers and people around caused the interview to be out of its scope. Moreover, the traditional coffeehouses where old people spent most of their time were used for the interviews. Noise of vehicles and insufficient light were experienced as the problems of an efficient interview. Furthermore, in places such as offices which are frequently used for interviews, noise was mentioned to be an obstacle. When experiences of pre-service teachers on this were analyzed, A26 mentioned house environment as “We did the interviews in the house of the interviewee, and we experienced no problems.” A4 coded pre-service teacher stated that “We did the interview in the house of the reference person.  We were negatively affected from the insufficient light of the room where we made the interview.” The handicaps of open areas were mentioned by A21 coded pre-service teacher as “I was obliged to make one of the interviews in an open area. There was noise around, and this caused disturbance.” Moreover, A9 stated that “this was the point I had the most difficulty. Most of the video recordings were out. Especially in recordings in old bazaar, the noises from the workplaces around, car noises and intervention of the people around for helping complicated everything.” A4 also revealed the problems as “I had much difficulty in making records outside.  The people around were swarming around us. They asked which channel we are making records. They were competing to appear in video record. I was also hesitant to be in a house for distrusting people. It was also hard for me to earn the trust of the interviewee.” As the obstacles that can appear in a workplace, A28 explained “There were many people around while I was interviewing old people in a workplace, and therefore, he was obliged to get interested in them.” A10 said that “We interviewed at a workplace and there was too much noise. For example, we interviewed two people in the office of a headman; there were many people around. There was also much noise disturbing us.” A3 coded pre-service teacher complained that “Some people were welding in the place where the old person worked.  There was much noise, and they mentioned they could not quit the job they were working on.” Related to traditional coffeehouses, A19 “I experienced this much in traditional coffeehouses. While we were interviewing they came and tried to disturb us. I think they were trying to be famous.”

 

Findings and interpretation related to the second sub-problem

The 2^nd sub-problem of the research was designed as “How were the views of the Social Studies Pre-Service Teachers related to an efficient oral history interview process?” Related to this sub-problem, 8 questions were asked to  the  social  studies  pre-service teachers in face-to-face interviews. The categories created for the answers given for each question were presented in the table with their frequency and percentage, and direct quotations were used for interpreting the tables. 

The answers given by the pre-service teachers to the question of “When interviewees did not understand your questions, what did you do to be more clear?” are presented in Table 5.

 

 

As could be seen in Table 5, the reasons for old people not understanding the questions were associated with the low level of education by 27%, difficulties caused by the oldness by 36, health problems by 5%, and difference of native language by 9%.  The solutions to overcome include repeating the questions by 27%, asking with examples by 15%, using local accent (Ad?yaman accent) and avoiding unfamiliar words while asking questions by 15%, using simple questions by 12%, and asking again after listening to the reference person by 12%. Related to this, A3 coded pre-service teacher mentioned that “They had difficulty in understanding in terms of their age, and some of them had language problems.” A16 stated that “Because the old man could not hear exactly, we were obliged to give more details related to the question.” A25 coded pre-service teacher explained that “because most of them did not hear, I asked the question again and again; and addressed the questions as whether something else happened, or this was also present.” Related to the ways of solution, A7 coded teacher said related to produced ways of solutions that “Because they could not hear exactly, they understood late or misunderstood. We listened to them without intervention. Then, we addressed the question again in a way they could understand.” A20 mentioned that “Sometimes, we repeated the questions for 4 times. We were obliged to give more details; after the interview with people having much difficulty in hearing, we had sore throat at that night. One time, I got hoarse.”  A6 stated that “we had problems for a few times. We had to repeat the question or address it again in a more explaining way.” “A20 said “We asked the questions in a simpler way they could understand better.” A30 coded pre-service teacher mentioned that “We tried to ask the questions using Ad?yaman accent, therefore we experienced no problems.”

Another stage of the research’s second sub-problem was related to the ways of solutions produced against the irrelevant answers. The question of “During the interview when the elderly person gave information unrelated to the question, how did you refocus him on the question?” was addressed to the pre-service teachers in interviews; the categories in Table 6 were created, and the explanation of the table was supported with direct quotations from the pre-service teachers. 

 

 

According to Table 6, the methods created by the pre-service teachers to cope with the reference people’s out-of-scope speeches were repeating the same question again after the completion of the response by 18%, asking additional questions related to the same subject by 15%, focusing on the next question by 12%, intervening by giving additional information by 12%, skipping to another question when he pauses for breath by 9%, reminding the subject of the interview at some intervals by 6%, before the interview, agreeing with the interviewee on the topic of the interview by 6%, reminding the question to the interviewee gently by 6%, associating the subject using humor by 3%, and promising to chat on this subject after the interview by 3%. A3 as a pre-service teacher mentioned that “Old people were sometimes out of scope. When we encountered such a problem, we asked question related to the subject without permitting them to speak more and provided them to speak on the subject.” A1 who used another method explained that “we tried to refocus the reference person on the subject asking the subsequent question. A12 also mentioned that “Yes, there were the ones who talked about their own memories and the problems they encountered before or the ones who associated the subject with similar events. However, I associated the subject with the interview in a humorous attitude. And I reminded the subject of interview at specific intervals.” A8 said that  “After  I  gave  them  an opportunity to speak more for a while, I tried to make them refocus on the subject. I asked my question again.” As a different method A19 explained that “There was no much wandering off the subject because we agreed on this before the interview. We asked them to give more details.” A27 explained what s/he encountered as such that “Generally, old men talked about the politics. Therefore we experienced the best interviews with women. The interviews were great because they did not talk on politics. When they were out of scope, we told that we tried to learn only that specific subject, or our main theme is Ad?yaman.” A4 said that “They were constantly out of scope. They wanted to advertise their books they wrote. They were talked about politics much. They repeated the same sentences for many times. I beat around the bushes until I asked them to refocus on the subject.” As a practical method, A22 said “This was the problem I have encountered frequently. After completing the answer of a question with 2 or 3 sentences, they skipped to another subject. In order to prevent this, I asked mu subsequent question after he paused for breath.” A24 and A11 mentioned that “We asked them to refocus on the subject asking the question again with a clue related to the interview.  Generally the old wanted to talk about their own lives. However, what was important for us was the history of Ad?yaman. When they were out of scope, we tried to refocus them on the subject with additional questions.”

Another stage of research’s second sub-problem was related to suggestions of solutions against the short answers such as yes/no that could be frequently encountered during the interview. There-fore categories were created for the question of “When interviewee gave short answers to your questions, what did you do to receive further information?” in Table 7, and the explanation of the table was supported with the direct quotations from the pre-service teachers. 

 

 

According to Table 7, the methods created by pre-service teachers for the reasons of short answers of old people and solutions to overcome these are given below. The pre-service teachers revealed the reasons for the short answers given by the old people as having superficial knowledge on the subject, distrust, recording the interview into camera and the reasons that could not be explained. In order to cope with this situation, they revealed their suggestions as  drilling with additional questions by 18%, providing soufflés by 15%, asking by giving examples related to the same subject by 12%, going on to interview turning the camera off by 6%, and requesting a memory if there was by 6%. Related to the reasons and ways of solutions to overcome this, A1 mentioned that “I tried to provide them talk more benefiting from their interests. After providing them to feel trust, I tried to obtain information creating a chatting environment.” A9 mentioned that “I provided some additional information.” A12 explained that “The first person I interviewed gave short answers because he was disturbed of tape recorders and camera. I had to repeat the question. I tried to obtain information asking new questions.” A5 mentioned that “For example, they avoided talking much on the games they used to play when they were children. We asked the questions related to this giving more details to the reference people.” A18 told that “They said they had no good memory. In this case, we asked again providing examples.” A2 stated “I requested him to talk about one of his memories. Then, he started to talk.” And A21 mentioned that “They got excited or frightened because they spoke in front of a camera. Therefore, they avoided from talking much. In this case, we turned off the camera. And we took notes of what they narrated.”

Another stage of the research’s second sub-problem was related to needing additional questions that could be encountered frequently during the interview. The question of “Why did you ask additional questions to interviewees as well as prepared questions during the interview?” was addressed to the pre-service teachers in interviews; the categories in Table 8 were created, and the explanation of the table was supported with direct quotations from the pre-service teachers. 

 

 

In Table 8, there were the reasons for pre-service teachers to ask additional questions to the old people apart from the ones they prepared before the interview.  Those results were giving specific details by 9%, finding out beneficial additional information by 18%, revealing the details by 18%, revealing the unknown aspects of the topic emerged as said by 15%, and verifying what was said by 18%. A14 coded pre-service teacher mentioned that “Sometimes, we addressed additional questions. The reason for that was their not understanding the questions. Sometimes they gave general answers. They did not give the answer we wanted. For that reason, we asked additional questions.” A11 stated that “Yes. I asked because I obtained some extra information that is beneficial to me.” A2 told said “We also asked some additional questions not included in the list. Because they provided extra information out of the ones I asked. Therefore, I wanted to ask new questions. Additional information, indeed, was related to our project.” A20 mentioned that “There should exactly be additional questions, because I obtained information I could never guess. And I asked more additional questions for more detailed information on this.” And A15 stated that “I asked to obtain more information and understand whether what they say is true or not.”

Another stage of the research’s second sub-problem was related to the attitudes of pre-service teachers against the incorrect or inconsistent answers given by the reference people during the interview. The question of “Did you challenge or try to influence what the elderly person says during the interview?” was addressed to the pre-service teachers in interviews; the categories in Table 9 were created, and the explanation of the table was supported with direct quotations from the pre-service teachers.

 

 

According to Table 9, pre-service teachers were noticed to follow two different ways on the attitude they had against old people’s incorrect and inconsistent answers during the interview. Whereas 36% of pre-service teachers expressed they intervened, the majority by 60% mentioned intervention as incorrect.  As the reasons for being wrong, 21% mentioned its being perceived as disrespect, 15% as old’ people’s getting angry when intervened, 12% as perceiving the researcher to be impartial, and 12% as not intervening to what was mentioned not to confuse them. The pre-service teachers by 15% who intervened expressed that they did so to reach the source of the information. Some of the expressions of pre-service teachers were as: “Sometimes we opposed to what old people said; for example, an eye disease experienced in Ad?yaman. As far as we understood from the interviews we made or our friends did, such a disease was experienced. However, an old uncle told us that no one became blind due to this disease, and no such disease was experienced. And we objected to this.” “Of course, in some situations we tried to correct them. We tried to correct them in order to learn which one was correct between the ones said by the previous interviewees.” “We asked them how they obtained this knowledge in order to learn whether this was a rumor or truth.” “I never opposed them because I am a historian. I should be impartial. If I did something like that, the project would be meaningless.”

The second sub-problem was related to reveal how reference people supported their narrations. For that reason, the question of “How did reference people support what they narrated?” was addressed to the pre-service teachers, and the answers were presented in categories in Table 10. 

 

 

As could be seen in Table 10, 21% of the participants mentioned that reference people used photos to support what they narrated, 18% mentioned their benefiting from old artefacts, 15% mentioned reference people’s using their notes, and 12 % mentioned reference people’s receiving help from their old friends.  Related to this, some example expressions of the pre-service teachers are such: “He was narrating Ad?yaman’s becoming a province.  There was a photo on the wall. He showed me the photo related to Ad?yaman’s being a province. His memories were recurred.” “When there were old photos, they showed and explained them.” “He had colleagues he used to work. He took support of them. They intervened when he could not remind.” “A retired teacher benefited from the notes he took in the past.”

Within the framework of pre-service teachers’ experiences, the fundamental components of an efficient oral history interview are presented in Table 11. 

 

 

The most important components of an efficient oral history interview according to pre-service teachers are presented in Table 11. When Table 11 was analyzed, it was noticed that these were evaluated as the reference person by  36%,  relevant  and  qualified questions by 30%, interview place by 27%, communication by 15%, equipped researcher by 15%, being a good listener by 12%, technical equipment by 12%, and preparation process by 9%.

Within the framework of pre-service teachers’ experiences, the findings related to how an efficient oral history interview should be are presented in Table 12. 

 

 

According to Table 12, it was understood that an ideal interview should be performed for 30-60 min when actualized with a group with 70 age average. 

According to the findings obtained from this research, the conclusions below were obtained. Oral history method was revealed to develop the skills as efficient listening, observation, asking question, differentiating the relevant information among the irrelevant ones, and differentiating the case from the view in social studies pre-service teachers during the preparation and interview process.

According to the results obtained from the findings, it was understood that it was necessary to interview with people having various features in order to learn the recent history of a province from the information on memories of people.  As could be understood from the own experiences of pre-service teachers, it was necessary to make a detailed preparation in order to perform an efficient oral history interview; appearance, namely being presentable, searching for the reference person,  preparing  qualified  questions,  determining   the location, and technical equipment are the essentials of a better interview.

As could be understood from the information we obtained, recording of the reference people into cameras for which they were not accustomed to, caused some disturbance. This led reference people to avoid being interviewed, and some reference people found them-selves as inadequate at expressing themselves because their native language was Kurdish. Pre-service teachers mentioned that they overcame this problem through speaking in their native language by the help of a translator. Especially the social studies pre-service teachers regarded the technical equipment in a way reflecting the seriousness of the activity to be performed. All process was considered elaborately. In fact, it is hard to include such old people who were put aside within the society in an academic research and to be cared about by anyone at a point in their lives. Moreover, it was not easy to bring these people over 70 to classrooms for training.

Although considered as a less significant subject for an interview, it is necessary to evaluate the special conditions of reference people due to their age as an inevitable factor of an efficient interview.

Although social studies pre-service teachers were not professional reporters or interviewers, they dried majority of the ways used to turn a negative situation into positive when a difficulty was experienced.They became  aware of some skills such as giving more details with reminds called as soufflé, providing sincerity and objectifying the subject with samples.

Verification of information for a scientific-purpose research is inevitable, and objective information can be obtained in this way. During the interview, pre-service teachers found it necessary to verify the information they obtained. Although it is possible to superficially remember a moment in the past, revealing the details is more important. Pre-service teachers being not contented with the prepared questions and their effort to obtain new information considered to be valuable were understood from their explanations. The pre-service teachers revealed the importance and necessity of additional sources such as photograph, object, old friend, etc. as the proving and supporting figures for the narration in oral history researches including subjective information and feelings frequently.  After totally 76 interviews, it was concluded that a one-session interview should be for 40-60 min. 

In Turkey, it was emphasized in the literature that an academic education that will teach the techniques such as collection, analysis, classification, and interview on site in a qualified way is needed in terms of historiography (Üçüncü, 2011, p. 446-447). In this sense, the performance of pre-service teachers is a significant step to decrease the aforementioned worry. As mentioned by Caunce (2001), oral history is a two-way process providing contribution to both the researcher and the material supplier and demanding something from the people. Some conclusions were obtained associated with the results of Kabap?nar (2009) emphasizing the importance of educationalists’ interpreting the information and their naming the interviewee as source and the interviewer as historian. As mentioned by Avc? and Aslan (2012), the pre-service teachers participated in the research associated themselves with the person they interviewed, and history becomes a real and concrete thing for them rather than being distant. Oral history studies also provide technical acquisitions. Pre-service teachers had ideas on selecting the appropriate speakers and questions, testing the reality of interviewees, eluding from the prejudices, being aware of the limits of a history based only upon the interview data, having a two-way role as a historian and interviewer, and coping with methodological problems that are all emphasized by several researchers in the literature (Ilisevich, 1972: 49-50; Klavora, 2012; Poll, 1995: 146, Avc? and Aslan, 2012; Brooks, 1997). Social studies pre-service teachers acquired the skills as behaving like a historian and doing researches. As emphasized by Ebner (Quoted Avc? and Aslan, 2012), oral history studies create more efficient results when performed with students at older ages. 

Parallel results were also obtained in the study of Sar? (2007) carried out with elementary education students.

One-session ideal interview process specified by the pre-service teachers was also supported in the studies of Stradling (2001) and Sar? (2007).

During the interviews, pre-service teachers did not constantly correct the answers given by the old people, and cared for not intervening or discussing with them.  Moreover, they also mentioned that they selected to obtain detailed information with subsequent questions in the light of new information that emerged in the subject. This was frequently emphasized in the study of Öztürkmen (1998).

The pre-service teachers also noticed that the places that will refresh the memory, remind the main characteristics of the period are like instruments reviving the memories. Even there were interviewees who preferred such a memory place as the interview environment. The pre-service teachers had knowledge, skills, and values using the oral history method. As mentioned by Safran (2004), to provide all these three can be achieved using the oral history method. Providing such opportunities to the pre-service teachers, these interviews should be per-formed to the pre-service teachers for at least one during the educational period in terms of making them acquire experiences on research, and realizing themselves, etc.

Using the oral history in supplementary materials of the course book will create a more attractive and gripping atmosphere at schools.

Carrying out such researches during the elementary education and high school process will also be very beneficial for the young and ignored old people. Oral history is well suited to a multiple-perspectives approach in social studies. The countervailing forces of any period can be brought to light through interviews with even a small set of individuals, each of whom comes to the historical moment from a unique, personal perspective (Crocco, 1998). The process raises questions about historical reasoning, methodology, and historiography. For students in diverse classrooms, one important question that inevitably arises concerns whether their interview subjects have had the same experiences as those described in the textbook. 

The author has not declared any conflict of interests.

This research was partly supported by ADYÜBAP (Adiyaman University Unit of Scientific Research Projects) as the developed form of a notice presented in 1^st International History Education Symposium organized in Atatürk University.