Pilot: Empowering young translators

It is important to implement this pilot because…

increases in migratory mobilities means that young people who migrate to new countries are frequently called upon to translate and interpret both outside and inside of school. They translate for family members, peers and the local community. School is one of the most frequent and important sites where the practice of young translating takes place. Sometimes the role of young translators within school is formalized but in many instances, young people’s role as young translators works on an ad hoc basis in ways that can be both advantageous and burdensome. Existing programmes to support young translators in schools focus on pragmatic language skills but pay little attention to the cultural, social, emotional wellbeing elements.

The aim of this pilot action is…

First testing of the pilot in

United Kingdom

Second testing of the pilot in

Italy

to work with young people who translate and interpret for peers, family and the local community to develop and design resources to improve the cultural, social, emotional and wellbeing elements of being a young translator. This pilot action will take place in a culturally diverse secondary school whose pupils range from 11 – 18 years of age.

The team will collaborate with the school partner to promote and organise the Young Translator Club. Young translators will be trained as young researchers as part of the Young Translator Club, and then use those skills to co-develop, co-design and then evaluate resources aimed at improving understanding of young translating as a caring practice. As part of their young researcher training, they will learn about traditional social science methods such as interviewing. Alongside this, they will also learn about participatory approaches such as arts-based methods (e.g. animation, digital filmmaking, photography etc). They will also be invited to contribute towards evaluation and dissemination processes (e.g. co-authoring paper or blog about research experience), ensuring meaningful participation across all pilot action stages.

This pilot will contribute to address some or all of the following objectives:

To improve understanding of young people’s translating as a caring and compassionate practice.
To design materials and resources that open up a space for considering the emotional engagement and wellbeing of the translator.
To develop resources to raise awareness of the practice of young translating across the whole school.
To create resources for both the young translator and those who connect with them during interactions, to build feelings of trust, value, belonging and acceptance.