DOING

LOCAL AND
ORAL
HISTORY
• The history subjects and courses usually
taught to students in schools are Philippine
history, world history, and history of Asia.
The coverage is always expansive and taught
in broad strokes of historical periods, large
spaces, and of prominent personalities. Little
is known about the subdiscipline of local
history.
What is Local History?
• It is the study of the history of a particular
community or a smaller unit of geography.
• Local historians study the history of local
institutions like churches. They also study the
local economies, local heroes, and local
events.
• Doing Local history is not an easy task.
Despite the seemingly smaller scope of
study. Historians are often faced with
challenges in locating sources for local
and specific objects of study.
 What is Oral History?
• Oral history is a method of conducting historical
research through recorded interviews between a
narrator with personal experience of historically
significant events and a well-informed
interviewer, with the goal of adding to the
historical record.
• Oral history is important in the midst of scarcity in
written sources, historical documents, and other
material evidences. This method uses oral accounts
of historical subjects, witnesses, members of the
communitie and the like.
• Oral history primarily relies on memory. The
subject or the informant will recount his
experiences to the researcher as he remembers it.
In other instances, the informant will relay what he
learned from hi ancestors or older members of the
community to the historian.
• Local and oral history are important
endeavors in the development and
enrichment in the discipline of history.
These efforts fill the gaps in the discipline by
highlighting alternative areas of study and
methodolog toward a more holistic,
inclusive, and progressive study of our past.