A Success Story in Integration of Oral History to Educational Implementations: The Foxfire Project

Oral history is one of the data collection tools of history used as a teaching and learning method in educational implementations. Oral history implementations are generally made within the scope of a project in education area. The most famous of these projects is The Foxfire Project, initiated by Eliot Wigginton, who began his career at the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee High School, Georgia, the USA where he graduated from Cornell University in 1966. This successful initiation has been continuing without interruption since 1966. The aim of this study is to show the success story of The Foxfire Project, the pioneer of school-based oral history projects, from beginning to the present. For this purpose, the method of document analysis was preferred in the study. At the end of the data analysis, some important findings have been figured out about The Foxfire Project. First, The Foxfire, which started as a school magazine in 1968, acquired a national and international scientific journal identity and reputation. Secondly, 12-volume series of books were published, most of which were edited by teacher Wigginton, in order to bring together the oral history studies of students. Third, the learning and teaching experiences developed within the project throughout the time have been transformed into a model called “The Foxfire Approach to Teaching and Learning Method”. Finally, the project has been a source of inspiration for making of similar school-based projects and issuing of school magazines