Government Archives - Kansas Oral History Project

Government uses portions of oral history interviews and sample Compelling Questions to examine how the three branches of government work, how public policy in a variety of areas is made by governmental bodies. The role of leadership by elected and appointed officials to effect compromise on controversial issues is illuminated.

How the Legislature Works

The 30 minute video, "How Things Got Done in the Kansas Legislature" is an introduction to how laws are made in Kansas and features 12 different legislators talking about how they got elected, how they determined their legislative priorities--in effect, how they made things happen in the Kansas Legislature.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mjBQoT-FZw[/embedyt]

What Kansas Courts Do

Retired Kansas Supreme Court Justice Carol Beier explains in this short video how the courts are different from the other two branches of state government and how the Supreme Court works to preserve the rule of law. The complete text of the interview of Justice Beier by Richard Ross can be found under the Kansas Courts and the Rule of Law collection.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI9qSgsL-4M[/embedyt]

What Kansas Governors Do

This 14 minutes video uses segments from the oral history interviews of two Kansas Governors, Kathleen Sebelius and Bill Graves, to illustrate how each of these popular, two-term governors navigated the political waters. Topics include budgets, school finance, working with a cabinet, court mandates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vLaO4pqen0

Compare and Contrast Kansas Governors – a lesson plan

In this lesson plan for high school government classes, students will select two oral history interviews from the KOHP Kansas Governors collection or from other oral histories. They will learn research skills and will analyze the videos or transcripts of these interviews in order to draw conclusions about the historical significance of the person and the resulting consequences of that person’s actions. Activities include taking Cornell notes about the important aspects of their identity and use a graphic organizer to contrast and compare the two governors. Complete details of the four-lesson plan can be downloaded below.