Ethics of Using Tools That Focus on Community Engagement in Bible Translation

Community engagement has become a best practice for Bible Translation projects and is a more ethical approach than those exclusively led by outsiders. There has been extensive research into a continuum of community or public engagement. Increasing community involvement has become viewed as an ethical practice. At each level of engagement, there are ethical issues regarding equity, power, and trust. Experience with using two tools, the Multilingualism Assessment Tool for Bible Translation (MAT) and Taste of Translation (ToT), has given insights into addressing aspects of ethical community engagement. Both tools involve community-driven organization and responses to the tools' outcomes.

Our experience with MAT has been in running workshops to train local tool users. The workshops begin with a lecture format, this is less community driven, but not unethical in the context. Then the workshop transitions to hands-on practice with volunteers from local people groups. These training workshops are not mainly community driven. However, the experience of the local tool users is different. They are trained to avoid lecturing, their role is to facilitate a local discussion. This engagement with the community focuses on developing community ownership and community decision making.

ToT workshops begin with engaging local community participants in guided activities. These activities are designed to raise issues that community members usually have not previously considered. They are then led through a brief translation activity to illustrate the typical translation process. Then space is given for the community to discuss what they have learned and how they want to respond.

This paper focuses on the ethical impact of using tools that allow projects to become community-driven. It will also discuss the unethical traps that facilitators in such programs may fall into.