Translating cross-language qualitative data in health professions education research: Is there an iceberg below the waterline?

Abstract

Health professions education research is an increasingly global community with culturally and linguistically diverse research teams who are challenged in how to communicate across cultures, contexts and languages. In today's diverse research landscape, language transcends its role as a mere means of communication and becomes a bridge that facilitates connections within research teams, between the team and its participants and between participants from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds and the scientific community. English as the ‘lingua franca’ is often seen as the international language of science and ‘a prerequisite for scientific exchange’. This creates a language bias within the body of health professions education literature and involves methodological challenges for conducting research in non-English speaking contexts.