1. REFLECTIONS ON TRANSLATING
RESEARCH DATA:
EXPERIENCES FROM PAKISTAN
Dr. Ayesha Bashiruddin
Assistant Professor,
Aga Khan University
Institute for Educational Development
Karachi, Pakistan

2. Sequence of Presentation
• Introduction
• Method
• Challenges of translating the research data
• Conclusion

3. Introduction
• Reflections as a researcher conducting narrative inquiry
• As a researcher my intent was also to learn from the
experience of research.
• Reflections became an ongoing process which became
an indispensable part of my learning (Glesne, 1999;
Merriam, 1988; Russell & Kelly, 2002; Stake, 1995).
• The focus of this paper is on the challenges of translating
the research data from three perspectives:
(a) translation of bilingual data;
(b) translation and representation of the data
(c) translation of the stories emerging from the data and
situating them in a social context.

4. Method
• Revisited my reflective journal
• The data in the reflective journal was analyzed
primarily by reflexivity
• Reflection a systematic process
• Framework for data collection and analysis based
on three simple questions:
(a) What are the challenges?
(b) How do I address them?
(c) What did I learn from them?

5. Challenges of translating the research
data
Translation from one language to another
• Competent in both the languages
• Challenge included translating the words, the phrases and
the interpretations of the stories presented by the
participants.
• Recording and translation
• Translate word for word or idiomatically vs gist
• Translation of the data took place in the classroom
tedious to transcribe it into English and Urdu since both
these language have different scripts.
• Verifying the translations

6. Challenges of translating the research
data
Translation of representation
Changing field texts to research texts
A relationship was developed earlier with the research participants during the
data collection period.
What do you learn from these stories?
To access stories and the teachers‟ understanding of the stories in various
ways, interpreting stories is a continuous and time taking process.
I need to had to continuously look for threads that would make me understand
the teachers‟ stories of their practices and how they could be situated in their
local contexts.
Cultural meanings

7. challenges of translating the research
data
Translation of stories and situating them in a context
Construct meaning of the social life
Two different socio-economic classes
An „insider‟ and an „outsider‟
The two teachers to discuss and describe their stories within the context in which
they lived the stories so that the stories do not seem to be in a vacuum but are
situated in the contexts.
I discussed the meanings of the detailed discussion regarding the meaning of the
stories within a the contexts was carried out in which the teacher worked.
After the teachers connected their stories of classroom practices and their
interpretations I kept on reflecting on them and tried to understand the situatedness
of the stories. Then the translation and interpretation of the stories as presented by
the participants was shared. I as a researcher kept of reflecting the way the stories
are presented because I was not working at the same level and same school.

8. Understanding “self”
• Translating the data and situating the stories of the teachers in
different contexts.
• Gained insights from researching and reflecting on the stories
as situated in the two contexts.
• Translating their stories and situating them in the context
• My situating these stories in their contexts reveal how these
contextual forces contributed to Fatima‟s and Khulood‟s their
learning of English and teacher development in both formal and
informal settings and how these have affected their teaching
and beliefs about teaching English
• For me as a researcher and as a teacher educator, our contact
provided a new experience of understanding the participants
and their development in their respective contexts.

9. Conclusion
• In this paper I have reflected as a researcher while conducting
narrative inquiry and of grappling with the issues of translating
the stories of teachers.
• My reflections show that all three are difficult and challenging
ways of translations.
• I am engaged in other studies in which I am using narrative
inquiry and writing reflective journal.
• In future also I will benefit from the journal entries because
translation is a very important issue for researchers working in
qualitative paradigm.
• By doing so I do not claim that I have been able to address the
question that I was trying to explore but have opened it for
discussion for others to add to the discussion especially in
contexts where the researcher and the researched speak the
same language.