OHV Advanced Workshop Teaching Oral History: Training the Trainers

Are you an experienced oral historian in Australia, New Zealand or Southeast Asia who would like to learn how to teach oral history in community, academic or professional contexts? This OHV online Advanced Workshop by two of Australia’s most experienced oral history trainers will consider: issues in interactive teaching and learning; approaches to teaching online and face to face; the aims and varieties of oral history; teaching interviewing; teaching the documentation of interviews; and teaching oral history relationships and ethics (the course will not focus on teaching interpretation of interviews).

Participants in this advanced workshop must have extensive oral history experience. Victorian participants who successfully complete this course, and who then shadow the teaching of at least one other OHV training course, will be eligible to teach OHV training courses. Participants from other states and countries will be equipped to teach oral history beginner courses.

PARTICIPANT FEEDBACK ON THIS COURSE IN 2019 AND 2023:

“Incredibly useful workshop. Enjoyed the day immensely! Terrific facilitators, wonderful cohort.”

“Great session - really made it seem very possible to run a training session with oral history beginners. Got some great tips on group management and facilitation which will be really helpful.”

“Truly honest, open, constructive, value-adding workshop.”

“Appreciated how watchful Al and Sarah were of timing and content. A great range of activities that facilitated learning and understanding.”

TRAINER PROFILES

Sarah Rood is a professional consulting historian who has been working in the field for more than 20 years. She has seen the uses and applications of oral history change drastically. Motivated by a desire to help communicate the past and to help connect individuals and communities with history and identity Sarah has recorded countless oral history interviews. Firmly believing that everyone has a story to tell, Sarah aims to work with people to record their stories in a way that both documents their experiences and ensures that (with permission) it can be accessed by others in the future. The interplay between the tangible and the intangible and how this plays out in oral history is a constant source of intrigue for Sarah. In recent years Sarah’s focus has also turned to the way story gathering and storytelling can be applied to drive change. Contact: sjrood@waybackwhen.com.au

Alistair Thomson, Emeritus Professor of History and national award-winning teacher, taught his first oral history workshop in 1985 at the Wangaratta Centre for Continuing Education and has been teaching oral history in both community and academic settings ever since. Al is immediate past President of Oral History Australia. His oral history books include: Anzac Memories: Living with the Legend (1994), The Oral History Reader (2016), Ten Pound Poms: Australia’s Invisible Migrants (2005), Moving Stories: an intimate history of four women across two countries (2011), Oral History and Photography (2011), Australian Lives: An Intimate History (2017) and Fathering: An Australian History (2025). Al is currently co-editing The Bloomsbury Oral History Handbook. Contact: Alistair.Thomson@monash.edu

NOTE: Tickets are made first available to OHV members, before being made available to non-members from the 5th of February. To become an OHV member visit https://oralhistoryvictoria.or...