Learning to learn, teach and develop : co-emergent perspectives on translator and language-mediator education

Authentic experiential learning has enjoyed widespread and growing advocacy in translator and language-mediator education. It is epistemologically rooted in experiential learning theory (Kolb 1984) and predicated on the assumption that only through deliberate and reflective practice can the adaptive expertise necessary to professional translation and language mediation evolve. As such, it is compatible with social-constructivist and later (co-)emergentist models of competence development (e.g. Kiraly 2013, 2016). This paper considers applications and potential implications of (co-)emergent perspectives on teaching and learning for student, staff and organizational development. Drawing on a widely referenced toolkit for developing organizational learning (Garvin, Edmondson and Gino 2008), it uses examples of key implementations at the author’s home institute to sketch out a frame for empowering institutions to educate not only translators and other language mediators, but also teachers, researchers and the organizations in and with which they work