“We leave a mark on these students' lives, whether we want to or not”: considerations on affection in the education of translators

Abstract

Affiliated with the research project <omitted> (CAAE <omitted>), this metatext reflects on affectivity and teaching in higher-education settings, more specifically, contexts of translator’s education. The study is justified by its contribution to discussions on translation didactics, a relatively underexplored area within Translation Studies. Drawing on a corpus of ten interviews with participants who, over the past five years, have taught at least one course involving the practice of translation, we conducted a discursive textual analysis (Moraes, 2003; Moraes & Galiazzi, 2006) to better understand the processes involved in teaching and learning translation. In this metatext, we analyze the theme of affectivity in the learning environment, as it represents a pattern of responses identified in the corpus. Among the research findings, we highlight that although only one participant verbalized the term 'affectivity' while speaking about her teaching practices, we identified elements across all narratives that allow us to conclude that the participants seek to build learning environments where respect between educators and learners prevails, and where interactions occur in a socially healthy manner.