‘Historical Gramophone’: An Integrated Study of the ‘Family Oral History’ Project and Narrative Writing in Primary Five Social Studies

Teo Chee Hean   [Singapore]

Abstract

To bridge the gap between grand national historical narratives and pupils' individual experiences, thereby fostering deep learning, this study designed and implemented the ‘Historical Gramophone’ project. This initiative deeply integrates Singapore's founding history within the social studies curriculum with the cultivation of narrative writing skills in the mother tongue. The project guided pupils to assume the role of ‘family historians’. Through interviewing grandparents or parents, they collected personal memories concerning their families' clothing, food, housing, transportation, work, and education during the 1970s to 1990s. These oral accounts were then organised and crafted into detailed personal historical narratives. This case study details the entire process: from constructing historical contexts and learning interview techniques to sifting and organising materials, culminating in narrative writing and sharing. Research demonstrates that this project effectively enhances students' historical empathy, historical source processing skills, and narrative expression abilities. It renders national history tangible and relatable through family stories, thereby deepening national identity and familial emotional bonds, achieving an organic unity of knowledge, skills, and values education.

Keywords: Oral history; Interdisciplinary integration; History education; Narrative writing; National and familial identity

Introduction

Singapore's Primary 5 Social Studies curriculum covers national independence and early development, a period distant from contemporary students both temporally and emotionally. Traditional teaching reliant solely on textbooks and historical records often reduces learning to rote memorisation, failing to evoke profound emotional resonance or historical comprehension. Oral history, as a “bottom-up” historical research methodology, places ordinary individuals at the centre of historical narratives, providing vivid material for historical education. Simultaneously, narrative writing constitutes the core of mother-tongue instruction. Grounded in “situated learning” and “connective learning” theories, learning yields the most profound outcomes when it establishes meaningful connections with learners' personal life experiences. Consequently, this study creatively integrates social studies content objectives with mother tongue skill objectives through the ‘Historical Gramophone’ project. It aims to enable students to actively construct an understanding of national development while exploring their family history, preserving these memories through precise and vivid language. This achieves a synergistic educational effect across disciplines.

I. Teaching Case Design: ‘Listening to Grandparents' Tales of the Past’

1. Target Learners: Year 5 pupils who have acquired foundational knowledge of Singapore's early founding events and developmental policies.

2. Core Task: As ‘Family Historians,’ interview an elder relative (grandparents/parents/uncles/aunts) to document a personal story from the 1970s-1990s under the theme ‘A Memory That Changed Our Family.’ Ultimately produce a structurally coherent, vividly detailed narrative essay for the class ‘Historical Memory Sharing Session.’

3. Interdisciplinary Integration Implementation Process (Three-week duration):

Week One: Initiation and Empowerment (History + Mother Tongue)

Historical Contextualisation: Review key early nation-building policies (e.g., ‘Housing for All’, industrialisation, bilingual education), view historical footage, and establish a period framework.

Oral History Methodology Workshop: Learn interview techniques including: crafting open-ended questions (‘How did you commute to school back then?’ ‘What did you do with your first pay cheque?’); active listening and follow-up questioning; recording equipment operation (with consent); and interview ethics (respect, confidentiality).

Close Reading of Exemplary Narratives: Analysing outstanding oral history narratives (excerpts), learning to transform interview material into stories with beginning, development, climax, and conclusion; employing detailed descriptions and direct quotations to enhance impact.

Week Two: Practice and Organisation (Extracurricular Practice + Native Language)

Conducting Family Interviews: Students utilise weekends to conduct interviews, recording or taking detailed notes.

Material Processing Session: Learn to transcribe recordings (or organise notes), extracting key events, quotations, character traits, specific objects, emotional responses, and other valuable information. Create a ‘Story Map’ or ‘Five Senses Detail Chart’ (What was seen, heard, smelled, felt?).

Week Three: Composition and Sharing (Native Language + History)

Writing Workshop: Students begin drafting. Key Teacher Guidance: 1) Opening: Setting the scene and establishing historical context; 2) Body: Developing around a central conflict or transformation (e.g., ‘Adapting from kampong to HDB flats’); 3) Integrating detail: Naturally weaving broader historical events (e.g., ‘The Speak Mandarin Campaign was underway’) into personal narratives; 4) Conclusion: Articulating the story's significance to “me” or ‘my family’.

Peer Review and Revision: Group peer assessment based on evaluation rubrics (historical accuracy, narrative coherence, vivid detail, linguistic fluency).

‘Historical Memory Sharing Session’: Organise a class presentation where students share their stories. All works are compiled into the class commemorative album Our Family History · National History.

Historical Reflection Discussion: Following the sharing, guide students to discuss: ‘What aspects of national development do you observe through these family narratives?’ ‘How do individual struggles relate to national progress?’

II. Teaching Outcomes and Reflections

1. Outcome Analysis:

Embodied and Emotional Historical Understanding: History transformed from abstract concepts like ‘economic growth rates’ and ‘public housing statistics’ into concrete narratives such as ‘Grandmother recounting how seven family members crammed into a tiny room, weeping with joy upon winning the public housing lottery.’ Students gained emotional resonance and lived experiences unavailable in textbooks, significantly enhancing historical empathy.

2. Authentic Writing Motivation and Higher-Order Thinking Development: Writing gained clear audiences (family, peers) and purpose (preserving family memory, participating in historical construction), generating strong drive. Students synthesised analytical, synthetic, and evaluative higher-order thinking skills while selecting, organising interview materials, and constructing narratives.

3. Reinforcement of Dual Identity: While tracing family struggles, the project enabled students to intuitively grasp the inextricable link between household fortunes and national development. One student reflected in their essay: ‘I finally understood that Grandfather's “relentless striving” wasn't solely for our family, but epitomised the nation-building efforts of all Singaporeans in that era.’ This simultaneously deepened both familial and national identity.

4. Deep Integration of Interdisciplinary Skills: The project seamlessly combined historical inquiry (source collection and verification), information literacy (interview data processing), and linguistic arts (narrative construction and expression), demonstrating the strengths of integrated learning.

Challenges and Implementation Recommendations:

1. Varied Family Backgrounds: For students from new immigrant families or those lacking family historical records, tasks may be flexibly adapted. This could involve interviewing community elders or utilising resources such as the National Archives of Singapore and historical photographs for ‘alternative’ oral history research.

2. Handling Sensitive Topics: Interviews may touch upon memories of hardship or poverty. Teachers should guide students beforehand to approach such subjects with respect and empathy, while also preparing psychological support.

3. Teacher Role and Support: Educators must possess both historical perspective and writing guidance skills to provide effective scaffolding as students transform ‘historical records’ into ‘stories.’

Conclusion

By connecting grand national narratives with micro-level family memories, the ‘Historical Gramophone’ project successfully advances history education beyond mere ‘knowledge’ to deeper levels of “emotion” and ‘reflection.’ It enables students to realise through practice that history is not merely the achievements of great figures, but the sum of countless ordinary people's daily lives and choices. This interdisciplinary project significantly enhances students' historical thinking and narrative writing abilities while delivering profound life education and civic education on an emotional level. It represents an effective pedagogical innovation for cultivating Singaporean citizens who ‘cherish their homeland while embracing the world’. It demonstrates that education yields its most enduring and profound impact when disciplinary boundaries dissolve within authentic tasks.

References

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