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Social Foundations of American Education

Welcome

Welcome to the research guide for INTD 203: Social Foundations of American Education. This guide will provide you with resources to complete your history of a school project and other assignments. 

What is Background Research?

Background research is the research you do before you start writing your paper. Doing background research is helpful for focusing your topic and finding out what information is available to you.

Background research can take many forms, but here's a few ways you can get started:

  • Choose one or two keywords from your area of interest or assignment description and put them into GLOCAT or a database and see what comes up. Skim over the titles to find ones that sound interesting, and use those to narrow down your topic.
  • Look through encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference sources related to your field for more information on your area of interest. This can help you learn about more specific aspects of your topic that you can use for your assignment, as well as spark new keywords you can search.
  • Try Wikipedia! While Wikipedia isn't a source you can cite for an assignment, it does have plenty of background information on a wide variety of topics. You can read the Wikipedia page for background information, and most pages will have a references list at the bottom you can use to help find scholarly sources.
  • Choose a journal in your field and skim the most recent titles to get a sense of what topics are trending.

 

Using GLOCAT

Use GLOCAT through the link above or the search box on the library homepage to find materials.

"Milne Search" will bring back materials we currently have available through Geneseo, while "SUNY & Worldwide Libraries" will bring back materials you can request through IDS.

Online Resources

The links below are general websites and resources that may have information on your school. This is where you will need to dig around and see what you find. Don't forget to look at online resources specific to your school (i.e. school or district website, school or district newsletter, Wikipedia "References" section, local newspaper, etc.). This takes time. If you get discouraged, please do not hesitate to reach out to your professor and/or the education librarian.

Key Resources

School Data Websites

Online Yearbooks & Alumni Websites

Media

Oral History

"Oral history refers both to a method of recording and preserving oral testimony and to the product of that process. It begins with an audio or video recording of a first person account made by an interviewer with an interviewee (also referred to as narrator), both of whom have the conscious intention of creating a permanent record to contribute to an understanding of the past. A verbal document, the oral history, results from this process and is preserved and made available in different forms to other users, researchers, and the public. A critical approach to the oral testimony and interpretations are necessary in the use of oral history" (Oral History Association, 2009).

Websites on Creating Oral Histories

Oral History Examples

Other Sources

Research the school using other sources: You may run into items or content that is not accessible online (e.g. yearbooks, statistics, newsletters). In addition this material may not be archived in catalogs or databases. The best way to get your hands on this content is by physically visiting locations that collect archival materials. The following is a list of locations, and the best person to contact at these locations:

  • Local High School - contact the HS librarian
  • Local Library - meet with the special collections librarian or archivist
  • County/Town Historical Society or Museum - contact a curator or archivist
  • Local College (specifically the local history collection) - talk with the special collections librarian
  • Perform a web search for school alumni sites - contact the website creator
  • Search Facebook or Twitter for school pages or groups - contact the group or page owner

Questions? Ask the Education Librarian!

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Becky Leathersich
She/Her/Hers
Contact:
Milne Library 206C
(585) 245-5542
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