Telling the Story: Communicating Local History in Contemporary Culture Through First Person Narrative

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Telling the Story Communicating Local History in
Contemporary Culture Through First Person
Narrative

• Julie Kling

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Chautauqua

• Place of learning keeping current on societys
  ideas and social issues.
• Lakesides current mission.

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Linking past with present

• Awareness in Ohio Ohio Bicentennial 2003
• Generally, alienation in society

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How to make history relevant to todays
generation contemporary culture?

• NOT THE SAME, UNIQUENESS OF THE INDIVIDUAL
• TECHNOLOGY, VIDEO GAMES, INTERACTIVE
• REALITY TELEVISION SEE THE WORLD AS IT REALLY IS
• TALK SHOWS OTHERS WORSE THAN I AM, CURIOUS,
  THRILLS
• VIOLENCE
• LIVE IN THE NOW MCDONALDIZATION OF SOCIETY
• FOCUS PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE
• WORRIED ABOUT MY LIFE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
• EXCITING AND SCARY AT THE SAME TIME!

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Alices Adventures in Wonderland

• Would you tell me, please, said Alice which way
  I ought to walk from here?
• That depends a good deal on where you want to get
  to, said the Cat.
• I dont care wheresaid Alice.
• Then it doesnt matter which way you walk, said
  the Cat.
• .so long as I get somewhere, Alice added as an
  explanation.
• Oh, youre sure to do that, said the Cat. If you
  only walk long enough.
• (Lewis Carroll)

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Is the past valued by individuals? If so, when?

• Important for job/career know field
• Important to know who I am
• Important to transmit culture cultural diversity
• Important when it somehow touches me!
• Personal experience use it to our advantage!

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Tell our story, allow others to tell theirs by

• changing our assumptions and expectations when
  needed, changing our approaches, being part of
  our community, and not being afraid to be
  creative and innovative.

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Personal Experience

• Desire for interaction reality TV
• Make history real
• No time machine accurately potray history, bring
  past to present.
• Create ways of engaging visitors, students
• When have you engaged students?

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What does this mean?

• Change
• To exist is to change. To exist a long time is
  to change often. (John Henry Cardinal Newman)
• Two realities of change it must occur and
  uncertainties of its outcomes must be reduced

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Peter Drucker Innovation and Entreprenuership

• Way things are/way things ought to be
• Need to perform tasks better in light of market
  demands, demographics, collective personality
  (new moods, personality), knowledge
• If at first you dont succeed with an idea, do
  not try it again and again, change it!

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Change

• Assumptions
• Expectations
• Approach
• View of Change Adaptability
• View Role in Community Integration
• View of New Ideas Creativity, Innovation

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Change Assumptions

• Organizational/Institutional Goals
• Old single-set of uniform goals
• New multiple and sometimes competing sets of
  goals
• Power/Authority
• Old power located at the top
• New distributed throughout the organization

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Change Assumptions

• Decision-making
• Old logical problem-solving process
• New a bargaining process to arrive at solutions
  that satisfy a number (variety of persons)
• Education
• Old teacher directed
• New learner directed, learner as consumer

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Expectation Effect

• Self-fulfilling prophecy effect
• If you predict it, it will come true.
• original expectation
• behavior communicates expectation
• evidence that confirms expectation

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Expectation Effect

• Sustaining expectations effect
• How is a group viewed?

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Change Expectations Learning as Personal

• See learner as an individual.
• 1916 Dewey, democracy in schools everyone has a
  voice
• See each individual or situaiton as unique.
• See positives of group.
• Education good or bad you never know whats
  going to happen next!

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Factors that influence expectations

• Context age, time of year, subject matter,
  learning environment,
• Interpreter or Educators personal
  characteristics
• Students personal characteristics

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Change Approach Learning as Active, Part of Group

• Problem Student Passivity
• Institutions have made people passive by way we
  treat them
• Some active/some passive.
• Group activities helpful to accommodate all
  types, feel safer in groups.

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Change approach Incorporate Narrative/Storytelli
ng

• Good storytelling draws listeners in
• Remember stories
• We are looking for ways our stories fit
  together.
• Stories have to be told or they die, and when
  they die, we cant remember who we are or why
  were here.
• Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees
• Example Writing courses

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Advantages of Group Learning Activities

• Learning is more effective in groups.
• Visitors/learners learn from each other.
• Safety
• Groups see that they learn something
• Cooperation
• Narrative, personal sharing among group members
  my story is not the same as yours, but there are
  similarities!
• Narrative, connect with past ah, hah others
  struggle with similar problems.
• (encourage reflection on likenesses and
  differences historywhy?)

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Methods

• Dyads--working with partners
• Group cooperative learning/Group Investigation
• Role-play
• Analyze/inquire about social issue, personal
  experience
• Example Sociology/World Religion

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Group Investigation

• Learners are given a problem
• Learners explore their reactions
• Learners formulate tasks for study
• Independent/Group study level depends on time
• Learners analyze process

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Role-play/hands-on activities

• Warm-up/get to know each other
• Introduce problem
• Set the stage/give some background
• Prepare observers
• Enact-do it
• Discuss and evaluate.

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Social Inquiry/Personal experience

• With interest in now important to connect
  history with now and learners personal life.
• Share narrative from history/present historical
  information
• Ask learners have you had experience similar to
  this?
• Similar emotions, questions, etc.
• Ask learners similar issues or questions in
  society today?
• Bridge the gap between past and present.

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Historical FactsPersonal ExperiencePresent
Culture

• Example from College Classroom
• Example from Chautauqua

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Example of challenges of narrative

• Ottawa Native American Woman
• Natives and Newcomers Museum Theater
• (by Julie L. Kling, 5/20/04)
• Hello, I am _________________________ of the
  Ottawas. My people are great story tellers
  (40). When the men come in from hunting, they
  share their experiences of the hunting trip as
  they eat bowls of hominy and venison (40). We
  women always have something cooking over the
  fire. Every visitor or caller is given a bowl
  of food. Visitors often receive a bowl of
  boiled corn or roasted venison (40). Food and
  sharing stories go together.
• One of our best storytellers was Wasaonoquet or
  Fair Sky (116). I could sit for hours and listen
  to him describe the history of our tribe and the
  great leaders of past generations. How great our
  history once was. How different things are
  today as we are scattered and live far away from
  the grave and council fires of our forefathers.
  (40-41).
• Wasaonoquet was once our Chief, but after contact
  with some of the white traders and the whiskey
  they brought, he was forced to give up his office
  and become an ordinary member of the tribe (40).
  He died soon after being removed west of the
  Mississippi from the effect of the Whisky (41).

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Changing Way We Adapt Applies not only to
individuals but to institutions! How do our
colleges, universities communicate their history?

• Successful must listen not only to learners also
  employees, volunteers,
• Result Commitment and Energy
• Employees, volunteers support system value
  institution
• Me first idea not only true for students but
  for staff

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Dissonance Theory

• Compares expectations of employees/staff to
  actual experiences
• How close do expectations meet actual
  experiences?

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Consumer-oriented society

• The degree to which an institution does/does not
  offer programs in line with community norms and
  expectations is related to difficulty or success
  in sustaining interest/support for institution.

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Monitor Environment

• Internal staff, faculty, students
• External community, potential students,
  technological advances

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Integration Institutions, part of society?

• Goal attainment Alice doesnt have a sense of
  where she is going.
• Society technology, change, individuals often
  have no clear sense of where they are going, so
  focus so immediate concerns.
• Look outward for answers how do institutions
  respond when someone approaches?

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Integration

• Listen to students, staff, community, etc.
• Articulate clear, common vision
• Individual knows role in larger plan, feels role
  is important.

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View of New Ideas

• Encourage creativity process by which new ideas
  are generated
• Encourage innovation process by which new ideas
  are transformed into tangible, useful things,
  ideas, reality
• Creativity? Innovation? not something into
  nothing shapes something into practical
  services, programs, etc.

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Cautions about change

• If it aint broke, dont fix it. If it is going
  well, dont change it.
• Ask why things are going well before you change
  it.
• Base future success on present success.
• Watch for novelty.
• Sometimes think small. Start small. Sometimes
  small changes lead to spectacular results.

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Back to Alice

• May our institutions know which way they are
  walking.
• May we be walking with purpose!
• May we help others on their journey to learn
  history by changing our assumptions and
  expectations when needed, changing our
  approaches, being part of our community, and not
  being afraid to be creative and innovative.