The productive difficulty of untranslatables in qualitative research

ABSTRACT

The paper highlights the role of translation in qualitative research that involves multiple languages. Its particular focus is on untranslatables, that is, those words or phrases in a source language that pose challenges to translators because no direct equivalent is available in the target language. Untranslatables create moments of productive difficulty by forcing a critical examination of both the data and the assumptions that framed the research questions. The paper discusses two cases: research with Mandarin-speaking participants on the topic of democracy and democratic subjectivity, and research with Q’eqchi’-speaking participants on the topic of civic engagement and political participation.

Este artículo enfatiza el papel de la traducción en las investigaciones cualitativas que se basan en múltiples idiomas. En particular se enfoca en los ‘no-traducibles,’ es decir, las palabras o frases en el idioma original que plantean retos a los traductores porque no hay un equivalente directo en la lengua meta. Los ‘no-traducibles’ crean momentos de dificultad productiva por obligar un examen crítico tanto de los datos como de las suposiciones que guían las preguntas rectores de la investigación. Este artículo trata dos casos: una investigación con participantes de habla chino mandarín sobre el tema de la democracia y la subjetividad democrática, y una investigación con participantes que hablan maya q’eqchi’ sobre el tema de la participación cívica y política.

KEYWORDS:

• Translation
• translatability
• qualitative research

Acknowledgements

Autumn Knowlton is grateful to Víctor Maquin for his insights into the Q’eqchi’ language and culture. His Q’eqchi’-Spanish translations made the analysis in this article possible. Claudia Ruitenberg would like to thank the SPIRITS project funded by the University Kyoto (PI: Naoko Saito), which provided inspiration for thinking further about translation. All three of us would like to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers’ constructive suggestions for clarification and improvement.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Claudia W. Ruitenberg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia. She is author of Unlocking the world: Education in an ethic of hospitality (Paradigm, 2015), editor of the Philosophy of education 2012 yearbook (Philosophy of Education Society, 2012) and the collection What do philosophers of education do? (And how do they do it?) (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), and co-editor (with D. C. Phillips) of Education, culture and epistemological diversity: Mapping a disputed terrain (Springer, 2012). Her research interests include ethics in education, political education, discursive performativity, translation in and as research, and epistemological diversity in research. She has published on these topics in a range of scholarly journals, including (on the topic of translation), ‘Distance and defamiliarisation: Translation as philosophical method.’ Journal of Philosophy of Education, 43(3) (2009), 315–323.

Autumn Knowlton is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia. She is currently finalizing her dissertation Q’eqchi’ Mayas (re-)imagine politics from the ground up: Territory, violence, and memory in ‘post-conflict’ Guatemala. Previous publications include ‘“Aun seguimos sufriendo, tal vez en otras estrategias”: un desafío al mito de la época pos-conflicto en comunidades q’eqchi’s.’ Espacios políticos, 7(11) (2014), 29–42.

Gang Li is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia. He is currently writing his dissertation on the influence of experiences with democracy on the political subjectivity of Chinese international students while pursuing degrees at Canadian and American universities.

Additional information

Funding

Claudia W. Ruitenberg would like to thank the SPIRITS project funded by the Kyoto University (PI: Naoko Saito), which provided inspiration for thinking further about translation.