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 – David 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 RMly

Revisiting works to clarify how RMly negotiated

Noticing metaphors / writers’ orientations towards RMly

Researching multilingually and researching multilingualism

Reviewing research methods and methodologies texts

= a selective review

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

A concern for validity in studies with RMly

Nursing and business studies

Squires (2009) – need for criteria for evaluating research validity and transparency, (14 offered, see hand out)

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

• Are ‘teaching’ and ‘teacher’ adequate translations?

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

Early childhood studies

Lack of problematisation in translation of terms and concepts

Practices developed in Reggio Emilia, Italy inspired practices around the world

Children learn in ‘un atelier’ with ‘un atelierista’

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

Globalisation – impacts on academic practices (1)

Robinson-Pant & Singal (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 2006 , Gill Crozier 2009

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 processesMichaela Wolf (2011)

Globalisation demands new approaches to conceptualizing translation and interpretation

Sociological and intercultural theories may help

Pierre Bourdieu – Habitus – what is the habitus of a translator? Who has agency and power in a translated encounter? Are there norms of translation and interpretation within interactions?

Bhabha (1994) – third space – what are the spaces in which translations take place? Temporary? Space and encounter require renegotiation each time

Research teams, Interpreters’ roles

Research team relationships (Creese & Blackledge 2012)

Temple (2006) – social care

Sanderson et al (2013) – nursing

Kamler & Threadgold (2003) – 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 David Boder

Working at a Remove: Sources

Boder, D.P. (1949). I did not interview the dead.

Rosen, A. (2010). The wonder of the voices: the 1946 Holocaust interviews of David Boder. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

http://voices.iit.edu -- Voices of the Holocaust

Niewyk, D.L. (ed.) (1998). Fresh wounds: early narratives of Holocaust survival. Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press.

David Boder - Jewish Russian/Latvian-born emigrant to the US; psychologist July 1946, visited DP (displaced persons) camps and ‘shelter houses’ - 16 sites

across four countries France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany interviewed Holocaust survivors …. to: -- preserve authentic record of wartime suffering; -- explore impact of extreme suffering on personality; -- inform post-war American public about the ghetto and camp victims; and -- support the DP’s case for immigration to America. “We know very little in America about the things that happened to you people who were in

concentration camps”. 130 such interviews (20 mins - several hours) recorded (wire technology) in 9 weeks using 9

languages (English, French, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Spanish/Ladino, Yiddish)

interviews - broad ethnographic purpose (songs also recorded)

data transcribed, translated (80+ of the interviews into English), analysed, disseminated and publicised these stories.

published accounts included Boder’s (revealing re knowledge and language issues) questions/comments

intentionally multilingual: case for neutral language (e.g. English) to minimise the potential to relive trauma Boder: survivors use “their own language” to avoid potential for “curtailment, straining

and oversimplification of the content” using a foreign tongue

“Since that is her language in which she can talk freely without any difficulty or

artificiality, I will endeavor to understand her” However, given US-audience, sometimes used English as shared lingua franca Thus, ‘tension’ between storyteller comfort and audience-reach.

transcription close to original - “their language habits show[ed] evidence of trauma” published interviews preserved/represented the “verbal peculiarities” of the

original speakers since these bore linguistic evidence of their trauma. some interviews translated / annotated by camp survivor Bernard Wolf

(1998) Niewyk edited / presented 36 of Boder's interviews

"this [volume] edits and revises Boder's translation. Boder insisted on a starkly literal, verbatim rendering of the original language, searching it for what he called evidence of 'deculturation' and various types of trauma. Here the objective is to let the survivors tell their stories as clearly and as intelligibly as possible, always in their own words but with much redundant material excised and, in a few cases, the narratives reordered for chronological coherence. Those for whom every hesitation, repetition and convolution may be heavy with meaning ought to consult the original recordings or transcriptions. Moreover, Boder's command of English, while usually competent, was never entirely idiomatic; after all, he had been forty years old when he entered the United States. Here every effort has been made to honor Boder's fidelity to the distinct character of the original text while rendering it on more precise and idiomatic English". (pg.6).

"Boder's questions, which have been reproduced only when necessary to clarify the narrative, appear in italics. The editor's interpolations are placed in brackets. Unless otherwise noted, the footnotes are the editor's. The interviews required such extensive editing that employing ellipses in every case would clutter the text. Their use has been minimized. Such matters as punctuation, capitalization, and spellings of proper names have been regularized. Note, too, the retranslation into more idiomatic English is so extensive in this version that no effort has been made to identify the passages that deviate from Boder's early transcripts ....".

discussions of RM-ly practice are not new discussions of RM-ly do explore the broader philosophical issues attitudes, preferences, and priorities change over time and according to

purpose regarding how research involving a multilingual dimension reports and foregrounds (or not) this RM-ly element

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)

Guidance for newcomers: Research methods textbooks

Guidance for qualitative researchers

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

Guidance for qualitative researchers in health

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 RM – other languages signals ‘foreign’Issues 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

Guidance for researchers using interview methods

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 German

“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 (1)

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 (2)

Final thoughts:

Ayesha 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

References

Abbas, T. (2006) A question of reflexivity in a qualitative study of South Asians in education: power, knowledge and shared ethnicity in Ethnography and Education 1/3, 319-332Abreu, G., Hale, H. (2011) Trajectories of cultural identity development of young immigrant people: The impact of family practices in Psychology Studies 56/1, 53-61Bashiruddin, A. (2013) Reflections on translating qualitative research data: Exepriences from Pakistan in International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 23/3, 357-367Chidlow, A., Plakoyiannaki, E. & Welch, C. (2014) Translation in cross-language international business research: Beyond Equivalence in Journal of International Business Studies 45, 562-582Creese, A. & Blackledge, A (2012) Voice and meaning-making in team ethnography Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Vol. 43, Issue 3, pp. 306–324Croot, E.J., Lees, J., Grant, G. (2011) Evaluating standards in cross-language research: A critique of Squires’ criteria in International Journal of Nursing Studies, 48, 1002-1011

References

Crozier, G. (2009) South Asian parents’ aspirations versus teachers’ expectations in the United Kingdom in Theory into Practice 48: 290-296Haberland, H. & Mortenson, J (2012) Language variety, language hierarchy and language choice in the international university in the International Journal of the Sociology of Language 216: 1-6.Holmes, P., Fay, R., Andrews, J. and Attia, M. (2013). Researching multilingually: New theoretical and methodological directions, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 23(3): 285–299.Kamler, B. & Threadgold, T. (2003) Translating difference: questions of representation in cross-cultural research encounters Journal of intercultural studies 24/2, 137-150Moss, P. (2010) English as a problem language Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 11/4, 432-434Risager, K (2011). Tolken i det interkulturelle forskningsinterview. KULT 9. Einspruch – Objection – Indsigelse. Essays in Honor of Hartmut Haberland. 87-105

References

Squires, A. (2009) Methodogical challenges in cross-language qualitative research: A research review in International Journal of Nursing Studies 46, 277-287 Temple, B. (2006) Being bilingual: Issues for Cross-Language Research in Journal of Research Practice 2/1. 1-15Wolf, M. (2011) Mapping the field: sociological perspectives on translation in International Journal of the Sociology of Language 207, 1-28