In this follow up to Educational Interpreting: How It Can Succeed, published in 2004, Elizabeth A. Winston and Stephen B. Fitzmaurice present research about the current state of educational interpreting in both K-12 and post-secondary settings. This volume brings together experts in the field, including Deaf and hearing educational interpreters, interpreter researchers, interpreter educators, and Deaf consumers of educational interpreting services. The contributors explore impacts and potential outcomes for students placed in interpreted education settings, and address such topics as interpreter skills, cultural needs, and emergent signers.

Winston and Fitzmaurice argue massive systemic paradigm shifts in interpreted educations are as needed now as they were when the first volume was published, and that these changes require the collaborative efforts of everyone on the educational team, including: administrators, general education teachers, teachers of the deaf, interpreters, and counselors. The contributors to this volume address research-based challenges and make recommendations for how interpreting practitioners, and all members of the educational team, can enact meaningful changes in their work towards becoming part of a more comprehensive solution to deaf education.

While educational interpreting has been studied for decades, the research has historically focused on the tasks educational interpreters are engaged in during their work day. In The Role of the Educational Interpreter, Stephen B. Fitzmaurice takes a new approach using role theory to examine how administrators and teachers perceive the role and work of educational (K–12) interpreters.

       Through a series of qualitative interviews and quantitative questionnaires with district administrators, school administrators, general education teachers, and teachers of the deaf, Fitzmaurice documents their perceptions of educational interpreters. Findings from the data reveal the perceptions of administrators and teachers set the stage for role ambiguity, role conflicts, and subsequent role overload for educational interpreters. Fitzmaurice elaborates on the implications of the research, and also provides concrete recommendations for researchers and practitioners, including an emphasis on the importance of involving the Deaf community in this work. This volume aims to offer clarity on the role of the educational interpreter, and dispel the confusion and conflicts created by divergent perspectives. A shared understanding of the role of the educational interpreter will allow administrators, teachers, and interpreters to work collaboratively to improve educational outcomes for deaf students.