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Teacher Resources

Interviewing a Veteran: An Oral History Project

Creative responses and research projects

A research project that guides students through planning, conducting and reflecting on an interview with a veteran or civilian eyewitness of war.

Suggested age

14–18

Duration

3 × 50 minutes

Type

Project

Conflict / period

General

Subjects

History, English, Citizenship

Content note

Interviewing real people about war requires care and consent. Follow the ethics guidance in the pack.

Overview

A research project that guides students through planning, conducting and reflecting on an interview with a veteran or civilian eyewitness of war.

Learning objectives

Prepare an ethical interview plan.
Conduct a respectful interview and record it accurately.
Reflect on what oral history adds that documents cannot.

Materials required

Recording device (phone is fine)
Consent form (template included)
Interview question sheet

Historical context

Oral history is the practice of recording people's spoken memories. It captures detail that documents often miss — how things felt, smelled and sounded. It also has limits: memory changes with time, and one person's experience is not the whole story. Done well, an interview is a gift to the future; done badly, it can cause harm.

Reading material

An interview is a conversation with a purpose. Before you press record, you must know what you want to learn and have the person's permission to ask. Good interviews are mostly listening. Your job is to help the person tell their own story in their own words, not to lead them toward the answer you hoped for.

Student worksheet (preview)

Stage 1 — Plan. Write five open questions (not yes/no). ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Stage 2 — Consent. Confirm the interviewee agrees to be recorded and to have their words used. Sign the consent form. Stage 3 — Interview. Record. Listen more than you speak. Do not interrupt a pause. Stage 4 — Reflect. Write 200 words on what this interview taught you that a document could not. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Discussion questions

Why is consent central to oral history?
What can a spoken memory tell us that a written document cannot?
How should we handle a memory we suspect is not accurate?

Extension task

Transcribe two minutes of the recording and deposit the transcript with the school library.

Support prompts

Ask open questions that begin with how, what or why.
Let silence do its work — do not rush the next question.
A memory that differs from a document is still a piece of evidence.

Sources and credits

10secondwarstories.base44.app
Oral History Society — good practice guide
Imperial War Museum — oral history

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