EDUCATIONAL TRANSLATORS AND INTERPRETERS

REFLECTIONS ON TRAINING AND HIRING

Abstract

The public politics of deaf student helpers in Brazil recognizes that the Professional responsible for acting as the linguistic mediator is the translator and interpreter of Brazilian Sign Language - Libras. In the educational context, this Professional is hired based on different prerequisites. This way, the study has as its objective to reflect about the education/background of the educational interpreter and their hiring in the educational environment. It was used as a methodology, a desk research made with two types of sources: a) Summaries of the graduation courses on translation and interpretation specialized in Libras; b) State editorials on educational interpreter’s hiring. During the study, it was noticed that the situation in the country is very diverse, manifesting the necessities, potential and limits of each regional context. Thus, the results point to the necessity of discussions about the training for educational interpreter roles, as well as the lack of consensus regarding the requirements for hiring these professionals. This finding aligns with the limited availability of higher education courses in translation and interpretation in most regions, which results in a gap between the official guidelines and practical applications. In this regard, as an emergency measure, the hiring notices permit and open the possibility of hiring professionals with different backgrounds, sometimes without the prerequisite of higher education. This resource, applied in emergency situations, aims to address the inclusive and "high-quality" bilingual education for deaf students; however, this solution may present didactic and methodological limitations in the exercise of the profession.