“coming clean” about researching multilingually – learning from different disciplines

Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the Body, Law and the State

“Coming clean” about research multilingually – learning from different discipline

RMTC Hub

Durham Symposium October 2014

Outline

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) through the Translating Cultures Programme [grant reference AH/L006936/1]

1. Orientation

2. Our puzzles

3. Mapping a range of disciplines in relation to RM

4. Honing in on one study – Robert Boder

5. Guidance for newcomers to the territory – research methods textbooks

6. Researching Multilingually in languages other than English

7. Concluding thoughts

Orientation


Searching for ‘traces’ of RM

Revisiting works to clarify how RM negotiated

Noticing metaphors / writers’ orientations towards RM

Researching multilingually and researching multilingualism

Reviewing research methods and methodologies texts

Puzzles


Which disciplines? Why not engineering or biology?

Historical perspectives or contemporary ones? How far back?

Research papers or books?

Search terms?

Accessing relevant sources beyond English language texts?

Mapping disciplines and research processes


1) A concern for validity in studies with RM

Nursing and business studies

Squires (2009) – need for criteria for evaluating research validity and transparency, (10 offered, see hand out)

Croot et al (2011) Critique of Squires – emergent nature of interactions in RM studies

Chidlow et al (2014) – critique of translation practices within business studies research

Globalisation – impacts on academic practices (1)

• http://reggiochildrenfoundation.org/?page_id=54

• Dangers of ‘one way linguistic traffic’ from English

• Concept of social pedagogy and the pedagogue little known in UK but very familiar concepts in other European contexts

• Social pedagogy conflated with ‘education’ or ‘teaching’ thus missing the holistic approach to young children’s early experience


Peter Moss (2010)“English as a problem language”

Early childhood studies

Lack of problematisation in translation of terms and concepts

Children learn in

‘un atelier’ with ‘un atelierista’

http://reggiochildrenfoundation.org/?page_id=54

http://reggiochildrenfoundation.org/?page_id=54

La piazza

"Spazi comuni nella scuola per l'infanzia" by Vincenzo Mainardi - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spazi_comuni_nella_scuola_per_l%27infanzia.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Spazi_comuni_nella_scuola_per_l%27infanzia.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spazi_comuni_nella_scuola_per_l'infanzia.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Spazi_comuni_nella_scuola_per_l%27infanzia.jpg



Globalisation – impacts on academic practices (2)

Robinson-Pant (2011)• Reflecting on the experiences of international students in UK higher education,

doctoral students of education• Challenges and tensions of gaining an award in one country / cultural context

based on fieldwork gathered in another • need for “decolonisation” of research methodologies• Students need to be supported not to “unlearn” their understanding of ethics /

research processes associated with specific contexts


RM and ethics (1)


Perry (2011) ethics from the perspective of research governance

Review of practices of Institutional Review Boards

Diversity of practices between institutions regarding research with refugees

‘imposition’ of ethical assumptions and practices – anonymity as a desirable feature of research practice

Assumption that lack of English language skills puts a research participant in a category of being “vulnerable”

RM and ethics (2)


When I go into a horrendous camp situation as a white researcher, the people are so desperate for any form of assistance they would agree to anything just on the off chance that I might be able to able to assist. It makes asking for permission to interview them or take photographs a farce… What does ‘informed consent’ mean in an isolated refugee camp with security problems and no proper interpreters?[Personal communication, Linda Bartolomei, 2004] p.234

Significance of context in defining ethics and ethical practice

Pittaway, E., Bartolomei, L., Hugman, R. (2010) ‘Stop stealing our stories’: The ethics of research with vulnerable groups in Journal of Human Rights Practice 2/2, 229-251

Researcher reflexivity – power dynamics


Tahir Abbas, Gill Crozier

educational sociologists - studies of Asian young people’s experiences of education in England and Black parents’ experiences of their children’s education

Concerns with power imbalances between researchers and participants and research relationships

Abbas – a “same-ethnicity” researcher

Crozier – background sharing to develop rapport

Both researchers – participants had a choice of language with which to engage in research encounters

RM research processes – working with data


Abreu 2011

Study of young people and ‘work’ – babysitting, paper rounds, language brokering

Educational psychology

Attention given to ways of working with data – language choices offered, uses of source language texts and translations in data analysis and presentation

Language choice offered to participants but not dwelt upon

Theorising RM processes


Wolf

Globalisation demands new approaches to conceptualizing translation and interpretation

Sociological, intercultural theories may help

Bourdieu - Habitus

Bernstein - Classification and framing

Bhabha – third space

Interpreters’ roles


Research team relationships

Temple – social care

Sanderson – nursing

Kamler & Threadgold – intercultural communication

Interpreters’ roles and contributions need researchers’ attention

recognition of interpreters as participants in research interactions not merely service providers – implications for briefing, collaboration, costs

Honing in on one study – The work of Robert Boder


Guidance for newcomers: Research methods textbooks


Our approach:

Key word searches

Targetted research methods texts

‘Mainstream’ research methods texts rather than specialised texts (e.g. linguistic ethnography texts)



Themes: Influences of global publishing industryWhich authors are published?In which languages?

P.137. In relation to feminist work: “More international scholars are being published, but in English because of translation difficulties and marketing pressures (Meagan Morris, personal communication)”.

Edited by Denzin & Lincoln The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (4th edition – 2011) on



Themes: Researcher pressures from global publishingResearcher identity

Social psychological research in Asia can be characterized by tension between scholars living within a phenomenological layer of cultural constructions as a visible part of their everyday life, and producing English-language publications that are devoid of such meaningful content and dedicated toward the pragmatics of career advancement according to top-down standards imported from the “best” (read Western) universitiesp.222

Edited by Denzin & Lincoln The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (4th edition – 2011) on



Themes: RM as demanding or limitingRM financial costs

Furthermore, when research interviews are conducted in multiple languages, interviewing, as well as transcribing, coding and analysing the materials, is particularly demanding. Translation to one shared language is expensive, and may introduce new problems when some data is translated and other not, for instance. The presence of several languages in the materials may limit the choice of analytical strategies, particularly those focused on languagep. 99

Ivy Bourgeault, Robert Dingwall, Ray de Vries The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Methods in Health Research (2010)


Themes:Specific methods – focus groupsRM and assumptionsRM as problematic

When conducting focus groups with members of ethnic minorities whose first language may not be that of the researchers, it is also easy to make unwarranted assumptions about ‘sameness’ based on shared language skills … Translation can be a potential minefield and it is important to enlist the help of bilingual moderators in carrying out back translation to ensure that offensive and insensitive vocabulary is avoided (Culley et al., 2007) p.339

Bourgeault et al


Themes:Assumptions of contexts for RMIssues of control flagged up as a concern in studies with RM

“A lack of language skills can therefore upset the practice of observation in a foreign terrain”.

The role of interpreters. “Interpreters can transform questions – either consciously or unconsciously – reducing researchers’ control over their projects. Similar problems can arise in the process of transcription and translation”. P.629.

Bourgeault et al


Themes:Where is RM situated?What is deemed to be core to the ‘business’ of interviewing and what is on the periphery?

“The need to conduct interviews in a foreign language raises numerous issues that are beyond the scope of the present chapter”. P,78

Gubrium and Holstein Handbook of interview research: context & method (2002)

Researching Multilingually – drawing on work produced in languages other than English


Parallel conversations – Risager (2011) & Haberland (2013)

Risager – roles and responsibilities of interpreters in e.g. research into the experiences of newcomers to Denmark (2005-8)

Identity issues - impact of the worldview of the interpreter on the interaction, developing interest of researchers in the life stories of the interpreters

Personal communication from academics working in Greek and English, Mandarin and English reported ‘no’ sources in Greek and Mandarin guiding RM practice

In Portuguese, the issue is not discussed in undergraduate and masters’ methodology textbooks.

Researching Multilingually – drawing on work produced in languages other than English


Haberland (2013) based in Denmark, writing in English, Danish and French

“the representation issue for multilingual interaction (which would include the use of several languages in the research process as distinct from the study of multilingual interaction itself)”

“how to represent multilingual interaction (e.g. research interviews) for an audience that is not multilingual with the same languages as are represented in your data.”

“the representation of multilingual interaction and to the use of non-Latin scripts in transcription. I think this is a relevant issue for multilingual research, although I have not really seen it treated anywhere else.”

Concluding thoughts


The project can contribute to ‘mainstream’ thinking on research methods and methodologies regarding RM

Findings and challenges from studies in a wide range of disciplines can feed into our research design, theorising, fieldwork, analyses and dissemination

Disciplinary norms and research paradigms seem to feed into ways of engaging with and representing RM

Learning from studies conducted and presented / written in a range of languages remains a task to pursue

Concluding thoughts


Final thoughts:

Bashiruddin 2013

the process of translation and making meaning out of the stories is a complex and time consuming process… The researcher needs to negotiate meanings by involving the participants. Third, situating the stories in a social context requires in-depth knowledge and understanding by the researcher of the context in which the stories are situated. This can only be understood if the researcher is aware of the context and is constantly exploring it through the lens of the research participants.”

Our challenge in working with people who are vulnerable, in pain