Professional, ethical, and policy dimensions of public service interpreting and translation in New Zealand

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-35
Author(s):  
Vanessa Enríquez Raído ◽  
Ineke Crezee ◽  
Quintin Ridgeway

Abstract This article reviews the practical, ethical, and policymaking dimensions of public service interpreting and translation in New Zealand. It shows that the country has had a limited tradition in translation and interpreting and that historically bilingual community members have been asked to perform T&I without specific training. Our review also reveals that several factors may explain the ongoing use of non-professionals across public settings: the availability of bilingual staff and community volunteers, the misrecognition of the T&I role, difficulties around procurement of highly skilled practitioners, and cost concerns. Policymakers and other members of the community have identified that these factors can negatively impact quality standards and professional ethics, as seen in the government’s recent initiative to regulate and professionalize the sector. We report on this initiative and our advisory role concerning the endorsement of a teleological approach to professional ethics.

2021 ◽  
pp. 103151
Author(s):  
Marie F Gerdtz ◽  
Philippa Seaton ◽  
Virginia Jones ◽  
Zerina Tomkins ◽  
Gemma Stacey ◽  
...  

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 5-11
Author(s):  
W.M. Williams

The New Zealand flora is a mixture of indigenous and introduced species. The indigenous species have a high intrinsic value while the introduced species include all of the crop and pasture plants upon which the export-led economy depends. New Zealand must maintain both of these important sources of biodiversity in balance. Seed banks are useful tools for biodiversity management. In New Zealand, a seed bank for indigenous species has been a very recent initiative. By contrast, seed banks for introduced species have been established for over 70 years. The reasons for this discrepancy are discussed. For the economic species, conserved genetic diversity is used to enhance productivity and the environment. Large advances can be gained from species that are not used as economic plants. The gene-pool of white clover has been expanded by the use of minor species conserved as seeds in the Margot Forde Germplasm Centre. Keywords: Seed banks, biodiversity conservation, New Zealand flora


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ryan O'Byrne

<p>The members of the South Sudanese Acholi population in New Zealand are part of the burgeoning number of refugees worldwide. As such, they are at risk of having their personal experiences submerged in the stereotypical view of ‘the refugee experience’. The South Sudanese Acholi community are a small but distinct ethnic sub-community within the wider South Sudanese refugee-background population in New Zealand. One of my primary aims in this thesis is to represent the specifically-situated experiences of individuals from this group within the broader contexts of refugee resettlement. A fundamental aspect of these experiences is the ambiguous and often contradictory senses of belonging which community members describe. Using analysis of the narratives through which these individuals make sense of their resettlement experiences, I determine agency to be an important consideration in experiences of belonging and, therefore, I argue that the role of agency to belonging should be more widely recognised. In this thesis I demonstrate how various attempts by South Sudanese Acholi at cultural (re)production in New Zealand are intimately linked to the many difficulties these individuals experience in resettlement, and particularly to how these difficulties impact the development and maintenance of a sense of belonging. Analyses of individual and common factors demonstrate the importance of belonging to experiences of resettlement. This is apparent throughout all aspects of South Sudanese Acholi’s everyday lives. This thesis is organised around the interlinking nature of three aspects of everyday life: marriage, cultural performance, and discursive practices. A central unifying factor is that each of these aspects of every day experience can be understood as attempts in developing more stable senses of belonging. Data was collected through a combination of participant observation and unstructured interviews. Participant observation was primarily undertaken among the Sudanese Acholi Cultural Association (SACA), a community-organised Acholi cultural performance group. Although not exclusively the focus of this research, the members of this group comprise the basis of my research participants and their resettlement experiences form the basis for my results. A focus on participants’ stories about their lives in resettlement allows analysis of the importance of their everyday practices and perceptions to the ways in which they experience and understand their lives in New Zealand and demonstrates that the on-going interaction between their experiences as refugees and their resettlement experiences are mutually reinforcing. I suggest that if refugees’ own voices and opinions are to be accurately represented, a holistic perspective of the full range of their experiences is required. The ambivalent, multiple, and multifaceted nature of belonging described by South Sudanese Acholi individuals’ is a defining feature of their resettlement experiences. I suggest that South Sudanese Acholi attempts at performing and reproducing their customary cultural practices in New Zealand serve primarily as creative means of adapting to the conditions of resettlement in ways which allow the construction, development, and maintenance of feelings of belonging among community members. However, I also determine that lack of agency is especially important for understanding the ambivalence about belonging South Sudanese Acholi demonstrate when speaking of these resettlement experiences. I argue that behind many of the everyday actions taken by refugees are simultaneous attempts to rediscover a sense of agency and to recreate a foundation for belonging.</p>


Revista Foco ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 208
Author(s):  
Ana Cristina De Albuquerque Lima Rodrigues ◽  
Beatriz Quiroz Villardi

Os professores gestores dos Programas de Pós-Graduação da Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro são oriundos de áreas diversas à Administração. A ausência de formação específica orientada para o desempenho das funções da gestão levou ao objetivo desta pesquisa: descrever como o professor gestor de Programa de Pós-Graduação em Instituição Federal de Ensino Superior – IFES aprende e desenvolve suas competências gerenciais, mesmo sem capacitação específica para a gestão. Para alcançá-lo na pesquisa, adotou-se metodologia qualitativa indutiva de análise de dados, nos termos de Thomas, pela qual os resultados emergem dos dados pesquisados. Da análise resultaram formas, fontes e conteúdo da aprendizagem gerencial destes docentes, e o que desejam aprender, que permitiram identificar assuntos para capacitação na gestão. Neste artigo especificamente, que tem por objetivo evidenciar a ausência de formação do docente para a função de gestor, considerou-se a capacitação para o desenvolvimento de competências e consequente desempenho das funções no serviço público federal, assim como a transição do docente para função de gestor.  As recomendações finais envolvem processos de aprendizagem na prática da gestão, necessidade de reflexão para desenvolver competências considerando a relação entre contexto social, indivíduo e suas experiências vividas. The management professors of the Post-Graduation Programs of the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro come from different areas to the Administration. The lack of specific training oriented to the performance of the management functions led to the objective of this research: To describe how the professor of postgraduate program in Federal Institution of Higher Education – IFES Learns and develops their managerial skills, even without specific training for management. To reach it in the research, it was adopted a qualitative inductive methodology of data analysis, according to Thomas, by which the results emerge from the data surveyed. From the analysis resulted the forms, sources and content of managerial learning of these teachers, and what they want to learn, which made it possible to identify subjects for training in management. In this article specifically, which aims to evidence the absence of teacher training for the role of manager, it was considered the qualification for the development of competences and consequent performance of the functions in the federal public service, as well as the transition from teacher to manager. The final recommendations involve learning processes in the management practice, need for reflection to develop competencies considering the relationship between social context, individual and their lived experiences.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Gloria Fraser

<p>While we know that rainbow people in Aotearoa New Zealand (that is, people of diverse sexualities, genders, and sex characteristics) experience high rates of adverse mental health outcomes, we know much less about the extent to which Aotearoa’s rainbow community members are receiving the mental health support they need. To address this gap I used mixed methods and a reflexive community-based approach to extend current understandings of rainbow mental health support experiences, and to explore how the provision of mental health care can be improved for rainbow people in New Zealand.  I first conducted interviews with 34 rainbow community young adults about their experiences of accessing mental health support. My thematic analysis showed that rainbow people across New Zealand faced significant structural barriers to accessing mental health support. Participants understood mental health settings as embedded within a heteronormative and cisnormative societal context, rather than as a safe place outside this context. This, together with a widespread silence from mental health professionals around rainbow identity, meant that participants actively negotiated coming out in mental health settings. Participants shared a variety of perspectives as to whether it should be standard practice for mental health professionals to ask about rainbow identities, but agreed on a number of subtle acts that could communicate a professional or service is rainbow-friendly. Knowledge about sexuality, gender, and sex characteristic diversity, together with clinical skills of empathy, validation, and affirmation, were described as key components for the provision of effective mental health support.  I conducted a second thematic analysis of data from a subset of the initial interviews, in which 13 participants discussed their experiences of accessing gender-affirming healthcare. Participants reported a lack of funding for gender-affirming healthcare in New Zealand, and described its provision a “postcode lottery”; the care available was largely dependent on the region participants were living in. Mental health assessments for accessing gender-affirming care were often described as tests of whether participants were “really” transgender, and participants discussed the need to express their gender in a particular way in order to access the healthcare they needed.  Thematic analyses of interview data informed the development of an online survey about rainbow peoples’ experiences of accessing mental health support and gender-affirming healthcare in New Zealand (n = 1575). Survey results closely reflected interview findings, indicating that rainbow people have mixed experiences in New Zealand’s mental health settings, and that accessing gender-affirming healthcare is a lengthy and convoluted process.   Finally, interview and survey data were used to develop a resource for mental health professionals, to guide their work with rainbow clients. I sought and incorporated feedback from key stakeholders (n = 108) during resource development. I then distributed the resource to mental health professionals around New Zealand, both in print and online.  Overall, my research shows that widespread knowledge gaps compromise the ability of New Zealand’s mental health professionals to provide culturally competent support to rainbow clients. Knowledge from this thesis can be used to increase awareness of rainbow community members’ mental health support needs, and to inform mental health professionals’ training and self-reflection around sexuality, gender, and sex characteristic diversity.</p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 153 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Reid

During 2013, the New Zealand government heralded the launch of the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) and Rural Broadband Initiatives (RBI) as significant tools across a range of economic and social policy areas, including the delivery of education and health services and the promotion of development policies for Maori. Conspicuously absent in the associated political discussion was the issue of public service broadcasting and the possibility for internet-based technologies to provide an efficient and cost-effective platform for the production and delivery of non-commercial public service media. The reason for this omission may be due to the governing National Party's historic disregard for public service broadcasting, as demonstrated by its disestablishment of a number of public broadcasting initiatives since 1999. Drawing on a Habermasian theoretical framework and Dan Hind's concept of ‘public commissioning’, the purpose of this article is to outline an alternative system for public service broadcasting based on a series of referenda and on open public debate. I begin by examining the present public broadcasting system and the traditional centrality of the state in governance and gatekeeping issues. I argue that the communicative potential of social media, enabled by universally accessible ultra-fast broadband, could provide an adequate platform for public gatekeeping, with the state having a significantly reduced role. I make the argument that the technological and resourcing mechanisms for such a system already exist, and the required shift in audience culture is already present in the consumption of entertainment and reality TV texts.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document