Teaching with Primary Sources

Counter(ing) Narratives to the American Story with Ethnographic and Oral History Collections

As a part of a consortium of partners from folklife and oral history organizations across the country, VFC has received support from the Library of Congress to participate in their Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program.

TPS is the Library of Congress’ premier educational program, focused on helping educators enhance students’ critical thinking, analysis skills, and content knowledge using the Library’s collections of millions of digitized primary sources. 

Project Overview

Coordinated by Local Learning and VFC, our project draws together collection materials from three partner institutions–VFC, History Miami and the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program, bringing them into conversation with archival holdings of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress with the goals of:

  • Recentering missing stories from the American experience through building critical inquiry with folklife collections held by the American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress.

  • Bringing primary source ethnographic and oral history fieldwork materials held by each of the partner sites into conversation with AFC materials.

  • Celebrating primary source materials and presenting them for use in K-12 classrooms, with emphasis on their value in exploring diversity, equity, and inclusion on a national scale.

Each partner site will choose materials from their archival holdings and pair them with materials held by the American Folklife Center to create regionally-specific educational resources that resonate with national concerns. Our hope is that these materials will be of use to educators in Vermont, Florida and Oklahoma as well as educators in other communities across the country.

VFC Project Vision:

At VFC, Sasha Antohin and Andy Kolovos are working with UVM Food Systems graduate student April Mcilwaine to design and pilot a series of learning activities for middle and high school students that explore the role farmers play in Vermont’s history and identity. VFC’s Archive is home to a wide range of perspectives and testimonies that showcase the human side of agriculture and the ways families, communities and the state have adapted over time. Learners will have the opportunity to hear these stories as oral history recordings and discover how these primary sources offer a window into experiences often hidden from the public. 

The primary source set and learning guide will permit learners to: 

  • Identify key changes in Vermont farm economy, labor practices, technology, and social values 

  • Present farm life and farmers’ experiences as diverse and complex   

  • Demonstrate ecological interdependence and connections to local food systems 

Guiding questions:

  • How has technology impacted farmers’ lives? What are some historical trends that can be connected to life today?

  • How has migration and U.S. economic demands shaped Vermont’s agricultural past and present?

  • In what ways have families and their generational knowledge shaped local farms and food production?

  • What are the factors that keep farmers farming in Vermont? What are the factors that prevent their way of life?  

We are currently developing our Teaching with Primary Sources resource, so stay posted for more information!