Power and trust: an academic researcher’s perspective on working with interpreters as gatekeepers

Abstract

Interpreters are often considered to be a form of gatekeeper to communication and understanding in situations where researchers do not speak the same language as the people who they wish to interview. The conventional best practice model poses the interpreter as a neutral conduit linking the interviewer to the interviewee. Using experiences from two research projects, in this article I challenge this model to uncover the complex interplays of power and trust in the relationships between interpreters and the imagined communities to whom they are positioned as gatekeepers, and between interpreters and the social researchers who they work alongside. I draw out some of the tensions around power and trust in the alignments and distinctions assumed, claimed and experienced in these relationships.

Keywords:

• interpreters
• power
• trust
• distinction
• imagined community
• relational

Notes

1. The perspective presented here is my own and responsibility for the argument made lies with me. The research project that forms a basis for these argument was a joint endeavour, however, and I would like to acknowledge the contribution of my academic colleagues – Claire Alexander and Bogusia Temple – in this respect.

2. Interpreting usually refers to translation of the spoken word while translation relates to the written word. They are somewhat different skills. Translators would be far more concerned with laying down a text that addresses the origins, grammar and so on of the languages that they are working with, while interpreters tend to be more concerned with relaying meaning within the moment. Our interpreter/research assistants reflected the latter more even when transforming the spoken interview into a written transcript.

3. For this reason he preferred to remain anonymous in all publications from the project.