Many Auslan interpreters have worked extensively across the education sector, including primary, secondary and tertiary education. It is important to acknowledge how significantly different the interpreter’s role is when working with adult learners from the role of the interpreter working in either a primary or secondary setting.
In primary and secondary settings, it is not unusual for the interpreter to be expected to “report back” to the teachers of the deaf about classroom content as well as about the students’ conduct and comprehension. It is also common to have more than one deaf student in a single class and multiple deaf students at the school.
As well, in a school setting, it is not unusual that interpreters develop a friendly relationship with the deaf students as the same interpreters often spend many years working with the same students.
In a tertiary environment, your sole focus is the transfer of information and whether or not the student comprehends the content (assuming that your interpretation is accurate), attends or behaves “appropriately” is not your concern. It is also far more common that the deaf student will be the only deaf student in that subject and, possibly, even that course.
It can seem appropriate to establish friendships with the tertiary students with whom you interpret. After all, they are adults and it is quite possible that they are in the same age group as you. As well, you are the person with whom they can readily communicate and it is possible that they are the only deaf person at that campus or institution and may feel isolated. It often seems quite natural to both student and interpreter to befriend each other and spend breaks and lunches together. However, this may not be the best thing for either you or the student to do.
To begin with, you need to have your breaks to enable you to clear your mind and refresh yourself for the next “round” of interpreting. As well, it is important for the deaf student to have the chance to interact with the others in the course and to establish relationships with their peer group. Remember, you are not “part of the gang”, nor should you be. You are there in a professional capacity and it is up to you to maintain professional boundaries. This is the responsibility of all professionals, even if their clients wish to blur those boundaries. Those feelings are natural; nevertheless, it is up to you to gently, but firmly maintain them rather than colluding with the person who wishes to overstep boundaries. Keep in mind that a part of your ethics requires you to remain objective and think about how difficult that could become if you befriend someone with whom you regularly interpret.
One of the most likely difficulties that you will encounter in a tertiary education setting is lack of familiarity with the subject area and/or having to deal with specialised content beyond your own educational background. As well, you will need to be able to develop the skill of assessing which English words are essential for the student to know and understand. Frequently this process ends up with the need for you to be able to interpret the message twice, first for content and meaning and the second time to convey the English vocabulary that is essential for the student to know. All of this makes the need for preparation crucial so that you can familiarise yourself with subject content and jargon. It also places quite a lot of pressure on you.
Try to avoid the situation of interpreting only in educational settings. Anecdotal evidence suggests that educational settings have one of the highest incidences of overuse injuries. In part, this seems to be the case because of the “lopsided” nature of educational interpreting; that is, a very high proportion of English to Auslan interpretation.
