Interpreters face ethically complex situations every day. Unfortunately, the profession has not been consistent in how it guides and supports interpreters in making ethical decisions. Most ethical codes frame ethical ideals as, “interpreters always...” and “interpreters never...”. Yet, in reality, interpreters often say “it depends on the situation.”
To add to the confusion, interpreters hear conflicting approaches from trainers and colleagues. Are interpreters are just “conduits” that should be “invisible”? Or are they “advocates” and “members of the team”?
Neither a list of rules nor a series of metaphors can effectively advance ethical thought and action in a practice profession. Instead, interpreters need a set of professional values and the skills to effectively apply those values in a particular context. A values-based framework effectively accounts for the complex work interpreters do, and does so in a manner that parallels other practice professions.
This workshop addresses the concerns of the current ethical dialogue in the interpreting field and offers interpreting practitioners a values-based teleological process for effectively analyzing each assignment for contextual factors and decision consequences. Robyn will use case examples to apply this teleological, or values-based, analytical approach.
