Workshop Title:
“No Longer an Afterthought: Redesigning Interpreter Education for Deaf Interpreters”
Workshop Description:
(View in ASL – Click here)
In developing a new Deaf Interpreter Training Program, Interpreting faculty at the Community College of Baltimore County considered how it could modify existing interpreting courses to serve the educational needs of deaf students. A Deaf Parented Interpreter and Deaf Interpreter educator, both certified interpreters, worked collaboratively to conceptualize the necessary changes.
In this presentation, we will discuss the frameworks and methods used to develop and execute curricular changes, the nature of curricular changes, and our experience of teaching the new curriculum. We will share anecdotal stories from deaf, Coda, and hearing students on their experience with the course material in addition to our own observations of student engagement. Finally, we will share practical advice with those wishing to undertake a curricular redesign of their own program.
Educational Objectives:
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
1) Identify key limitations of hearing-centered interpreter education curricula and explain how these limitations impact deaf students in interpreter training programs.
2) Describe the frameworks, instructional strategies, and design processes used to redesign existing interpreter education curriculum to support a Deaf Interpreter Training Program.
3) Analyze practical approaches to curricular redesign, including the development of parallel stimuli and collaboration with consultants, and apply relevant insights to their own interpreter education contexts.
Bio:
Su Kyong Isakson, MA, NIC, Ed:K-12, is an Associate Professor of Interpreting at the Community College of Baltimore County in Catonsville, MD. Her area of interest includes curriculum design and teaching strategies of heritage signers in ASL and interpreter training programs, and the sociocultural impacts of professional identity development among Coda interpreters. The daughter of Deaf South Korean immigrants; Su Kyong’s heritage languages are Korean Sign Language, American Sign Language and Korean. Her contributions include Heritage signers: language profile questionnaire (2016), and The Case for Heritage ASL Instruction for Hearing Heritage Signers (2018), “Between Two Worlds, I am Whole” in We are Codas -Between the world of hearing and the world of silence (pp. 347-388) an anthology of South Korean Coda stories, and Infusing Social Justice in Interpreter Education (2023). Ms. Isakson is co-founder of The Coda Network, an online learning community for Codas seeking personal and professional development.
Stephan Kennedy was born in New Mexico and is a native user of American Sign Language. He holds a Master’s degree in Interpretation from Gallaudet University. He is a certified Deaf Interpreter and has been teaching as an Assistant Professor in the CCBC Catonsville ASL/INTR Program since Fall 2021. In addition to his teaching, Stephan developed CCBC’s Deaf Interpreting Certification Program and currently serves as the INTR Program Coordinator, where he supports and advises interpreting students. His students appreciate his unique perspective on Deaf interpreting and his challenge to think critically and reflect on their practice. Outside of work, Stephan enjoys cooking and hiking with his partner and their two four-year-old German Shorthaired Pointers.
RID CEUs Offered: .15
