Haylie Baisden

Oral History Interview Reflection:

During this Oral History Interview, I applied my metacognitive thinking skills by reflecting back on past experiences. I have been the interviewee on several occasions but never the interviewer before. I thought back to the times I was interviewed and tried to use that as drive for my interview questions. Though this wasn’t a job interview, I used MT to gain understanding of how to ask the questions I chose. My past interviews have helped me to know what it’s like to interview someone and what style/order to ask my questions in. I started with simple questions and later asked my interviewee to elaborate on more complex aspects of my theme.

I never knew much about the technical aspect of oral histories and was unfamiliar with StoryCorps before this assignment. I also never knew how oral histories were conducted until I did one myself and learned how to set it up. The most challenging aspect was navigating the app I used but it was easier once I played around with it and listened to others’ oral histories. The most enjoyable aspect was getting to create my own interview for someone who knew a lot about my topic.

I learned about the ways banking, businesses and finances were impacted during the pandemic. I also learned that some jobs are still effective from home, i.e. bankers who now work from home are still doing their jobs.

Conducting my own oral history felt different as I have never been on this side of an interview before. I felt as if I learned a lot about what goes into conducting oral histories, though. This was a very informing assignment for me.

MT and inquiry based thinking were both applied to this assignment.

I recommend students become familiar with StoryCorps and take time to think of creative questions for their interviewee. I would recommend keeping StoryCorps as it is helpful for oral histories and a great platform to use.

This assignment is very helpful in understanding what oral histories are. If you weren’t familiar with them before, this assignment is very beneficial to you. You’ll learn how to conduct an interview and elements of oral histories from both sides.

StoryCorps URL:  https://archive.storycorps.org/interviews/pandemic-interview-with-a-banker-covid-19/