This oral history interview is an intimate conversation between two people, both of whom have generously agreed to share this recording with Oral History Summer School, and with you. Please listen in the spirit with which this was shared.

This interview is hereby made available for research purposes only. For additional uses (radio and other media, music, internet), please inquire about permissions.

All rights are reserved by Oral History Summer School.

Researchers will understand that:

  • Oral History Summer School abides by the General Principles & Best Practices for Oral History as agreed upon by the Oral History Association (2018) and expects that use of this material will be done with respect for these professional ethics.
  • Unless verbal patterns are germane to your scholarly work, when quoting from this material researchers are encouraged to correct the grammar and make other modifications maintaining the flavor of the narrator’s speech while editing the material for the standards of print.
  • All citations must be attributed to Oral History Summer School:
    Narrator’s Name, Oral history interview, YYYY, Oral History Summer School
I have read and agree to the terms listed above.

Launched by Oral History Summer School (OHSS) in June 2020, the Education Narratives Project (ENP) documents the experiences of educators in the age of COVID-19. The effort compiles and curates a multivocal narrative that preserves knowledge and testimony, abides witness to individual and collective trauma of teachers, students and families, and supports educators who have been tasked with radically shifting their practices throughout the pandemic. The collection contains 98 longform oral history interviews spanning seven broad interview cycles, ending in August 2022.
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This project emerged through our own intimate relationship to education; our team of coordinators and volunteer interviewers are educators, parents, social workers and more. We are aware that this specific sub-history of educators’ as frontline workers has been largely undocumented despite the proliferation of other oral history projects with important foci, such as hospital and care work during COVID-19. We feel called to ensure this particular history, which impacts future generations (our current young learners), is documented with nuance. We also consider how this history is shaped by and drives adjacent events and histories, including the summer 2020 uprisings after the death of George Floyd and the 2020 and 2021 wildfires in California and Oregon.

Moreover, we hope the project offers a source of connection for educators. We offer oral history as an invitation to educators to act as authors of this history and also as an invitation to pause, collaboratively make meaning, and think about the future.

In addition to conducting interviews, the project hosts a series of listening parties for educators. Our conversations have covered a number of topics, including care in learning spaces, uncertainty, loss, isolation, and hope.

As of September 2022, our collection features over 98 interviews to date with 27 narrators, including classroom teachers, school leaders, urban planners, and community-based educators. These current interviews currently fall into seven broad phases:

  • Phase 1: Initial closure/Emergency move to online education (March-June 2020)

  • Phase 2: Planning for the new school year (July-August 2020)

  • Phase 3: Launching the new school year (September-December 2020)

  • Phase 4: Availability of vaccines (March-June 2021)

  • Phase 5: Planning for and launching the new school year (August-October 2021)

  • Phase 6: In-person schooling through changing safety policies (February-April 2022)

  • Phase 7: Closing the third school year in COVID-10 (June-August 2022)

These longform interviews are archived for future use and available in full length and by selected clips on this website. We invite you to listen with us and honor the voices of educators, during this historic moment, and always.

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