Talk with us: History faculty report on how they use primary sources to teach undergraduates

2008 online survey of 627 historians Published in forthcoming Archival Issues 25, one-hour, follow-up telephone interviews Random selection of volunteers Proportional to national figures for Tenure and non-tenure track status Years of teaching Baccalaureate/masters and doctoral granting institutions

Interview Questions How faculty currently use primary sources to teach Barriers, such as Class size and course loads, Tenure requirements Access to online or archival sources. Student responses, their difficulties, and what helps them learn.

Major conclusions from the interviews Using primary sources in conjunction with lectures has become the norm Primary sources are used in freshman courses very differently than in upper division courses Currently archival sources are used primarily for research Innovators among historians are introducing students to archival work at all levels

Active learning Learning by Doing Primary sources are history’s “laboratory” Affective connection to past improves retention of knowledge Can accompany textbooks and lectures or stand alone

Briefly, active learning in history classes encompasses Discussion, debate Analysis of documents-textual and visual Corroboration of evidence Synthetic reasoning Creative output-- articles, essays, journal entries, wikis, video projects, etc.

What Sources Historians Use* Published source readers– 90% Online primary sources—78% Archival primary sources—39% Proprietary databases—23% *Half or more of classes in online survey

How Historians Use Primary Sources to Teach Illustrate lectures Promote discussion

How Historians Use Primary Sources to Teach Ask students to compare evidence

How Historians Use Primary Sources to Teach Promote discussion Engage analysis Close reading

How Historians Use Primary Sources to Teach Role play/debates Dred Scott

How Historians Use Primary Sources to Teach Visual evidence

Historian’s Point of View -Bulk of teaching responsibility and students -Freshman level --Broad rather than deep --Mostly non-majors -- Large classes-maybe discussion sections --Some, not all, fulfill “general education requirements” U.S. History Survey—

When the US Survey is a General education course Reading , writing and critical thinking emphasized -Classes smaller - Introduces how history is written -Content coverage broad U.S. History Survey— Majors and non-Majors

Historical Methods Course: -Classes 15-30 students; all majors -Hones online and archival sources search skills tours -Archival user education -Research papers . - Historiography Historical Methods

Upper Division Courses Content driven Research paper Specialty area History majors Smaller class size

Three points and ways to incorporate primary sources Upper division Document Search Topical Analysis Skills Research U.S. History Survey— Majors and non-Majors Historical Methods

Range of faculty opinions Using primary sources “. . . is a time investment . . . but it is exactly something we ought to spend time on . . . It requires multilevel thinking . . . it is the kind of contextual thinking that you would expect a college graduate to own.“ Three out of 30 interviewees did not think it was practical to use primary sources to teach freshman survey classes

Faculty Report on Student’s Response to Using Primary Sources “they hate textbooks and they like primary source documents much better.“ “there's much more of a sense of fun and discovery for most undergraduates in the act of trying to comprehend a primary source. They feel closer to the past in this.”

Examples of first person accounts

What teachers say are biggest challenges for students? Getting past black and white thinking; Accepting differing ideas; Thinking independently Moving beyond the first source that comes up

Where do archival materials fit in active learning approaches? Open field “Real stuff” is magical to students— complements the “virtual stuff” Unique and local materials make history real

Constraints—time, place, space What courses are being taught--Do my holdings include materials relevant to courses? What size are classes?--How many students can my facilities accommodate and staff serve?

Identify documents that are appropriate for upcoming courses First person accounts especially concerning young adults or students Cultural artifacts—advertisements, magazines, photographs, cultural objects Speeches, polemics Local records illustrating national themes Documents with contending truth claims Readable, legible, not too long

Advocating for an expanded role for archives in undergraduate education Distinguish document analysis from research Students find working with the real documents very meaningful Archival and online primary sources complement each other

Benefits of outreach Students creates a large new constituency for archives Student users help archivists make a strong case for the relevance and value of archives to the teaching mission of their organization.

Benefit of outreach Students are the future Future K-12 history teachers are today’s undergraduates Archival experiences for wider swath of undergraduates builds reputation of archives as accessible, user-friendly, and holding valuable materials

Suggested activities Collaborate with faculty to: arrange a tour and brief orientation plan and coordinate archival assignments Select real documents for students to use in the archives reading room Make surrogates of a few documents for student to analyze in a larger space Provide copies of documents for later classroom activities.