“Welcome to my side of town” – Teaching and learning by means of service learning in translator education

Abstract

This article investigates Service Learning (SL) as pedagogy for educating translator students in higher education. Situating translator education within new theories of knowledge, this article provides a description of a first-year module presented in translation practice. It makes use of Bringle and Hatcher’s conceptualisation of SL, with a focus on the application thereof at the UFS. The aim of the article is to argue for more attention to the curriculum in translator education, rather than mere pedagogy, as well as for attention to philosophical and ideological issues in designing the curriculum of translator education. It also focuses on the transforming role that SL could play in translator education in particular and higher education in general by exposing students to various cultural and ideological spaces.

Keywords: service learning, translator education, teaching, learning, philosophical and ideological issues