"I'll Remember That": Oral History, Service Learning, and Historical Understanding

Service learning seeks to inspire students to look beyond the walls of the classroom to connect and apply what they’ve learned in coursework with the reality of lived human experience. Looking at history is fundamentally about looking at humanity, the thread that binds service with learning.  More than simply “volunteering”, service learning is meant to be a more far-reaching and sustained experience in that it requires continual reflection about the connections between coursework and service.  It also involves reciprocity, making service as valuable for the students performing the service as it is for the community being served.

This presentation analyzes a service-learning project included for several years as part of a college core course that introduces students to historical thinking.  Students partner with residents from a nearby senior community, visit several times to interview them about their lives, then produce some biographical account (in their choice of medium).  Key outcomes include a better understanding of historical method, the human dimension of historical experience, and a recognition that history involves not only those grand moments highlighted in textbooks but even the everyday aspects of peoples' lives.  On their end, seniors benefit socially, cognitively, and otherwise from interaction with traditional-aged college students; moreover, insofar as people have a fundamental need to share their stories, students provide their partners with opportunities and an audience as they give voice to their reflections about their lives.

This presentation uses written reflections that students produce after their service-learning experiences and feedback from participating seniors gathered during my own follow-up interviews to explore how an oral history project can place meaningful human connections and relationships at the center of historical understanding.