Involving Preservice Teachers in Collecting and Performing Oral Stories
Social studies teacher educators highlight the importance of oral stories and histories in the social studies classroom, leading social studies learners to seek multiple perspectives and encourage historical thinking in the classroom. However, preservice teachers are given few opportunities to internalize this idea. In this article, the author examines the collection of oral stories and creation of performances in a social studies methods course. The process involves preservice teachers conducting oral history interviews, choosing material to explore, creating and performing stories, and sharing their representations with peers. As preservice teachers become storytellers of someone's history, they are made aware of their own subjectivity.