Oral History in Accounting: Best Practices to Consider

ABSTRACT Oral history techniques have the potential to enliven the written record, illuminate perceptions and motivations of participants in historical events, provide explanations of events and forces relating to historical processes, and in general make the study of accounting history more productive. When exploring previously underreported areas of history, oral history may uncover facts and experiences of participants that can bring significant information to light. This paper provides illustrations of previous applications of oral history techniques in published accounting research, introduces some reasons to use oral history, summarizes best practices in oral history research, and provides a description of lessons learned during the conduct of an oral history project addressing a major initiative in the development of accounting education. It is hoped that this paper will provide a useful resource for researchers planning projects that could include oral history applications.