Methodological, Historiographical and Educational Issues in Collecting Oral Testimonies

The Museum of Education (University of Padua) has been engaged for several years in collecting and preserving oral, material and written sources on the history of the Italian school. As for the oral testimonies, the Museum collects a total of about 450 interviews, available in digital audio and / or video format. In the activity of obtaining oral testimonies were also involved students, so this method of historical research has also become an experience of university teaching. Students, after being trained in this activity, were asked to interview three individuals each one. The questions of the grid want to investigate both aspects of everyday school life, and the cultural and social context in which lived the people interviewed. By narrating himself and his own story, the subject also narrates more general History; he refers to a context, a culture and shared values. It is then up to the researcher to reconstruct the political and ideological scenario, to “read” the framework of social structures and cultural references in the stories of the subject. The present work aims to describe and critically reflect on the experience carried out and on methodological issues.