Many feel that educational interpreting and translation are hitting a tipping point, similar to that experienced by legal and healthcare interpreters in the 1990s and 2000s, and by signed language interpreters in the 1970s and 1980s. The field has matured to the point that stakeholders from all over the country are clamoring for more recognition, more resources and a more formal structure.

 

In that spirit, ITE coordinated an exploratory conversation about the creation of national ethics and standards for interpreters and translation in education. The meeting was held onsite on September 27, 2019 at the Orange County Office of Education 3rd Annual Interpreters and Translators Conference. 65 people attended onsite and 35 attended online. 

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The event was a working meeting to determine next steps for the creation of a body to pursue a national effort to create educational interpreter and translator ethics and standards. 

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The two primary goals of the the first meeting were:

• provide a summary of the process the National Council for Interpreting in Health Care went through to create national ethics and standards for healthcare interpreters as a jumping off point for the conversation.

• agree to a series of next steps to publicize this effort, ensure broad inclusion and begin to establish the group's structure and goals.

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5 speakers provided key framing for those attending, starting with Healthcare Interpreting founding pioneer Cindy Roat, who gave a 15-minute history and analysis of how healthcare interpreting successfully created its ethics and standards. Cindy was followed by four lightning presentations about efforts taking place in a variety of education settings across the country: 

1. Angel Ho, Oakland School District, California

2. Betty Tapias-Heinrich, University of Minnesota

3. Victoria Baldwin, Jefferson County Schools, Colorado

4. Jennifer Love, Prince George's County Schools, Maryland

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During the meeting, participants provided input to the following questions using a polling platform called Mentimeter, responses in the Zoom chat box, and by handing in 3x5 cards a the onsite venue. 

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1. Who is here? (see graphic)

2. Where are you attending from? (see graphic)

3. What are the biggest challenges facing educational interpreters and translators? (see Excel form)

4. Do you support the effort to launch a national effort to create ethics and standards for T&I in education? (see Excel form)

5. What structure should the effort take? (see graphic)

6. Based on Cindy's presentation, what are the next steps? (see graphic)

7. What additional next steps would you like to see? (see Excel file)

8. How can we make this effort as inclusive as possible? (see graphic)

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Below, we have provided the following information from the meeting:

• The meeting agenda.

• Cindy Roat's PowerPoint presentation

• Mentimeter results in graph and Excel form

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STAY TUNED for the complete report on the meeting and our next steps. We are still collating the written responses and processing the video of the meeting. These will be posted soon.