Teacher Candidates’ Attitudes to Using Oral History in History Education

Abstract

The aim of this research is to determine the views of history teacher candidates towards an oral history project carried out in the Special Teaching Method Course of the history pedagogy program of the Fatih Faculty of Education (FFE) at Karadeniz Technical University in Turkey. An open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interview were the main data collection tools of this study based on a qualitative approach. 86 history teacher candidates in the pedagogy program filled out the questionnaire and 20 of them participated in interviews. In light of the gathered data it seems that teacher candidates gained basic knowledge and skills in how to conduct oral history in history education. Besides this, they also recognized that oral history is one of the important approaches to supporting active learning in history lessons, and that this approach could make history lessons interesting and enjoyable.