Managing distance when teaching, learning, and doing oral history: a case study from Vietnam

Siobhan Warrington, Laura Beckwith, Hue Nguyen, Graham Smith, Lan Nguyen, Thuy Mai Thi Minh, Chamithri Greru, Tanh Nguyen, Oliver Hensengerth, Pamela Woolner and Matt Baillie Smith

Published in ‘Handbook of Teaching and Learning Social Research Methods’

Chapter abstract

This chapter presents the experience of supporting research using oral history alongside a range of visual research methods to explore the experiences and understandings of environmental change among younger and older women and men living in two rural areas of the Mekong Delta Region of Vietnam.

The chapter focuses on the teaching and learning component of the intergenerational research project, and in particular the experience of teaching, learning and doing oral history. As a case study it includes the facilitators’ pedagogical aspirations and plans, but also the realities and the unexpected challenges and successes faced by both facilitators and learners when teaching and learning in the context of multiple distances: geography, language and discipline. It draws upon the experiences and reflections of the UK-based facilitators and the Vietnamese co-facilitator, as well as the feedback and ideas shared by the Vietnamese learners. These learners included both university research staff and students.