Author
First Name Carolina
Last Name Odman
Affiliation Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy, University of the Western Cape
Country South Africa
Title: Developing inclusive resources: representation, co-creation, culturally relevant communication
South Africa is a country with 11 national languages and a history of segregated education. The lack of a rich scientific vocabulary in 9 of the national languages is a strong barrier to the accessibility of science [1]. As the South African democracy matures, sensitivities around the intertwined histories of science and colonialism are growing and give rise to calls to decolonize science. South Africa is also host to world-class astronomical facilities and home to a strong research community. In this paper, we describe a multi-faceted approach developed to address challenges in engaging the population about astronomy in our national languages. Rather than focusing on scientific content, we focus on scientists and their practice. Resources are created by applying design thinking around representation and ease of language. They contain very few technical words and address common misconceptions of scientific practice. They feature South African astronomers and their personal experience of astronomy as a career. The resources are tested with potential science students. Social media is used to crowdsource translations into other South African languages with the aim to co-create our resources with the public. Remarkable effort is put in by the contributors to formulate astronomical terms without using English terms. To take the design of resources to the next level, we are starting a collaboration between linguists at the Xhosa department of the University of the Western Cape (Xhosa is one of the most commonly spoken languages in South Africa). The research and collaborative translation with expert linguists focuses on the domestication[2] of new and emerging scientific terminology in Xhosa as opposed to the foreignization[2], i.e. the co-opting of foreign terms to the detriment of the language. This approach is important in that it contributes constructively to the decolonization of science.
Reference[1]: Biyela, Sibusiso (2019). “Decolonizing Science Writing in South Africa”, The Open Notebook, https://www.theopennotebook.com/2019/02/12/decolonizing-science-writing-in-south-africa/
Reference[2]: Venuti, Lawrence (1995). “The Translator’s Invisibility” Routledge, New York. ISBN 978-0-415-11538-4