Cross-Cultural Communication: Practices of Translation on a University-Community Outreach Project

• In Event: Semiotic Understandings of Education

Abstract

This research draws upon Vygotsky’s concept of artifact-mediated action to investigate how practices of translation mediate emerging relationship on a university-community outreach project. As members of the University enter into marginalized communities, there exists an inherent risk that asymmetrical power dynamics could generate relationships that invoke colonial models. When participants speak a language other than that of the dominant culture, the potential for marginalization is even greater. In this research, I am guided by the question: How does “translation” across differences of language and social position affect relationships between university and community partners on an outreach grant? I investigate the methods that mitigate reproducing colonial relationships, finding that translations that are two-way, co-created, and multi-modal are effective.

Author

• Leah Anne Teeters, University of Colorado - Boulder