Research Methodology in Accumulating the Oral Testimonies Concerning Teaching Interior Design in Iran

The establishment of the Decorative Arts faculty and education of interior design can be traced back around 60 years. When it comes to the education of a specific academic discipline, like interior design, study the relevant history is inevitable to improve the quality of education. Investigating the history of interior design education in Iran, we encountered the scarcity of written documents in this field, therefore; the need of using oral testimonies emerges. Hence, oral testimonies are very important in studying the history of interior design education and the lack of it will cause losing the useful information forever. Research that is based on oral documents is often referred to as oral history, which is one of the most effective types of research in historical and social studies. Today, this type of research has spread significantly in research and academic communities around the world. But is any method of collecting oral documents an oral history? Is the nature of the document sufficient reason to call it oral history? What are the etiquettes of dealing with an oral document? This paper tries to unveil the research methodology of dealing with oral documents in a research project about the origin of academic training of interior design in Iran. Oral history is often equated with interviews or lectures, but in fact, oral history research goes beyond gathering and recording information. This type of research is a specialized field of historical studies with specific techniques that distinguish it from just collecting oral documents. The basis of information in oral history is the interview, which is conducted with a clear structure and as a result of coherent research. The interview forms a purposeful dialogue between the historian and the interviewee that distinguishes it from recollection. In addition to the importance of determining the research plan, oral history, like any other research, has two theoretical and practical aspects. The theoretical aspect includes the intellectual foundations of the research, which are rooted in the purpose and destination of the project. The practical aspect, in other words, is the same as the general issues in oral history and pays attention to the details that are necessary to guide the project and provides instructions for conducting interviews, recording, and maintaining research documents. These two aspects are not separated from each other and knowledge of each adds to the quality of the other. This paper is organized into three main sections. The first part describes what oral history is and provides an overview of its definition, background, subject matter, and history in Iran. The second part reviews the theoretical foundations of the oral history research project. Issues such as setting questions, identifying informants, and determining the research program and roadmap. The third part deals with the practical experience of doing an oral history project. In conclusion, an attempt is made to review the most important points that the researcher of oral testimonies should consider.