Perpetual Translation

Conveying across Cultural Contexts the Languages and Practices of Student Voice and Pedagogical Partnership

Authors

  • Alison Cook-Sather Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges

Keywords:

translation, student voice, pedagogical partnership

Abstract

In this Personal Reflection I use the metaphor of translation to illuminate processes of linguistic and metaphorical transformation I have experienced over the course of my career and across multiple countries. My recognition of the need for such translations originated in the context of student voice work within an undergraduate secondary teacher preparation program in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It deepened through my embrace of pedagogical partnership work within educational development and consultation in higher education contexts around the world. The metaphor illuminates my own and my colleagues’ efforts to convey the languages and practices of student voice and pedagogical partnership across cultural contexts as we strive to support inclusive and responsive pedagogical practices. My experiences in England, Italy, and Aotearoa New Zealand serve as illustrative examples of these efforts and the processes of translation required and inspired by them. Translation captures the simultaneous suspension and engagement, the distance and proximity both necessary for and intended by the work of trying to connect across differences. It captures that way we carry what we know across linguistic and cultural divides, find new ways of naming it, and become new versions of ourselves through all these processes.

Downloads

Published

2019-01-21