Question

I work as a psychoeducational consultant in a school district. I've recently worked with a refugee family and I used the services of a settlement worker to act as a translator. It was amazing to see how the settlement worker was able to put the parents at ease, and build trust between the parents and the school. This?was invaluable.

There were a few times during the meeting where I felt like I lost control of the conversation, as the parents and settlement worker were communicating fluently in a different language. I tried my best to stay in the conversation and ask for clarification when possible. Do you have any suggestions for how I might maintain control of the conversation in the future interactions? We do not always employ the use of interpreters in the school boards, but I’m wondering if this may be a good idea?

Sangeeta Subramanian, Project Lead, The Inclusion Project, writes:

This is such a great question. It shows the importance of cultural competency as well as the critical role that language plays in creating comfort for clients in all settings.

Is it a good idea to use interpreters in interactions with families that are not comfortable with English?

Absolutely! It is not just a good idea but an imperative for school boards to use interpreters and continue to do so even when the children become fluent and can often act as interpreters. Having children interpret to the parents what the school teachers/counsellors/consultants are communicating creates a damaging power dynamic within the household. As many school boards start to enroll students from families where the parents/caregivers do not speak English or French, building in a budget for trained interpreters is crucial.

Maintaining control of the conversation?

This is trickier as you don’t want to limit the flow of information which can often be helpful in bringing out underlying issues that the client may not have addressed in the more formal part of the conversation. However, it is important that the conversation remains relevant to the reason for meeting the family.

One way to address this is to bring in trained cultural interpreters in the community. Settlement workers know the language but if they are not trained interpreters then they may not have an understanding of issues of boundaries and confidentiality. Many settlement organizations often have a roster of trained interpreters and this would be a good database to access.

If your community is small and there is not a pool of trained interpreters to draw from, then it would be important that you/school district invite settlement organizations for a session on what it means to act as an interpreter within the school setting, clarify expectations and set some boundaries.

As a first step, the next time you are planning to bring someone in as an interpreter and they have not received formal training to act as interpreters, have a pre-meeting with them and go over the boundaries and the expectations that you have from the conversation. This way, you have set some clear rules of engagement and the settlement worker can meet your expectations while putting the family at ease.