2. Investigating a historical event
As well as using oral histories to find out about life in the past, you can use written records with your pupils.
In this section, we look at how different sets of records can help pupils build up their understanding of the past. In Activity 2 and the Key Activity, pupils explore written records of past events and conduct oral interviews with community members. How you organise and gather resources together is part of your role and advice is given on how you might do this.
Case Study 2: Using written records to explore past events
Mr Kiune is a teacher of Standard 6 at Korogocho in Nairobi, Kenya. The 40 th anniversary of Kenyatta Day is coming up, and he remembers that students from Korogocho played a central role in the Mau Mau uprising. He wants his pupils to honour the role that the school played and the anniversary by creating a display. He sends his class to the school library where they read the events of the Mau Mau uprising. Two local newspapers, The East Africa Standard and the Nation, have just published supplements commemorating the uprising and the role of the former students in them from which he reads extracts to his class to stimulate interest.
These articles contain profiles on over 20 of the prominent persons of the 1950s, their lives and what has become of them. Many became famous politicians, renowned business people or intellectuals. He divides his class into groups and asks each group to identify one of the leaders and to research then to write a profile of the person on a poster, for display in the school hall. The poster must include how they were involved and what happened to them both then and now.
The pupils then plan to present their findings to the whole school on the day before Kenyatta day. Some of the pupils speak at the assembly and all the classes have posters around the wall. The whole school is able to look at the display and gain a sense of pride in the role their school played in their lives.
Resource 3: The Mau Mau uprising gives some background information.
Activity 2: Researching an important date in history
This activity is built on a visit to a museum, in this case the National Museum in Nairobi, but you could use a more local site. (If it is not possible for you to visit a museum, you could collect together some newspaper articles, pictures and books to help your pupils find out for themselves about an event.)
Decide on a particular historical event that you wish your pupils to investigate during the visit to the museum (or in class if you have the resources). It is important that you focus the attention of your pupils on a particular event, especially if they are visiting a museum covering many years of the past.
- Divide the class into groups, giving each a different issue or aspect of the historical event to focus upon.
- Discuss what kinds of questions they might need to find the answers to as they read and look at the exhibitions (if at museum) or materials (if in school).
Back in class, ask the pupils in their groups to write up their findings on large posters. Display these in the classroom or school hall for all to see.
1. Gathering oral histories
