1. Research Methods (HK) 2015-16 Phase One Lecture 5 Historical Research Sheffield Hallam University
by K S Ho (SCOPE)

2. Historical Research Basic concepts Doing Historiography (Berg 2009)
The Sources of Data of Historical Researchers (Berg 2009)
The Narrative in History
Life History / life story / biographical interview
Oral History

3. Basic Concepts
History: an account of some past event or a series of events.
Historiography: a method of discovering, from records and accounts, what happened during some past periods…..historiography seeks to offer theoretical explanations for various historical events (Johnson & Christensen 2003 & 2007 in Berg 2009).

4. Historical method: a study of relationships among issues that have influenced the past, continue to influence the present, and will certainly affect the future (Glass 1989 in Berg 2001).

5. Doing Historiography (Berg 2009)
Identify an idea, topic or research question.
Conduct a background literature review.
Refine the research idea and questions.
Determine that historiography will be the data collection process.
Identify and locate primary and secondary data source materials.
Confirm the authenticity and accuracy of source materials.
Analyze the data and develop a narrative exposition of the findings.

6. The Sources of Data of Historical Researchers (Berg 2009)
Primary Sources: the oral or written testimony of eyewitnesses, e.g. documents, photographs, recordings, diaries, journals, life histories, drawings, mementos or other relics.

7. Secondary Sources: the oral or written testimony of people not immediately present at the time of a given event, e.g. textbooks, encyclopedias, oral histories of individuals or a group, journal articles, newspaper stories, and even obituary notices.

8. Tertiary sources: primary or secondary information that has been instilled and presented in some sort of a collection or anthology format, e.g. almanacs, bibliographies, dictionaries & encyclopedias, books of facts, abstracts, annotated bibliographies & similar items used to actually locate primary and/or secondary sources & manuals.

9. The Narrative in History
Neuman, W. Lawrence Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, p. 435.

10. Life History / life story / biographical interview
Interview and gather documentary material about a particular individual’s life.
Ask open-ended questions.
The person may reconstruct or add present interpretation to the past.
Categories, e.g. migration, occupation, education, family events.
Artifact, e.g. old photos.

11. Oral History Both written and oral sources.
Written document: personal documents such as letters, journals, diaries, poems, autobiographies and even plays.
Unstructured interviews with the people about their lives or events in the past.
Especially valuable for non-elite groups or the illiterate.

12. References:
馬嶽 《香港80年代民主運動口述歷史》香港：香港城市大學出版社 (DS796.H757 M )
張慧真 《從十一萬到三千：淪陷時期香港教育口述歷史》香港：牛津 (LA1134.H6 Z )
游鑑明 《傾聽她們的聲音：女性口述歷史的方法與口述歷史的運用》台灣：左岸 (D16.14.Y )  
新婦女協進會編寫 《又喊又笑：阿婆口述歷史》第二版，香港：新婦女協進會 (HQ1781.Y )  
蔡寶瓊主編 《千針 萬線：香港成衣工人口述歷史》香港： 進一步 (HD9940.C53 H ) 
McMahan, Eva M. & Rogers, Kim Lacy eds.
1994. Interactive Oral History Interviewing. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Association. (D16.14.I ) 
Huen, P. Lim Pui; Morrison, James H. & Guan, Kwa Chong eds Oral History in Southeast Asia: Theory and Method. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. (D16.14.O )