Analyzing Translated Research Methods Books in Social And Educational Sciences from English to Turkish: Exploring the Reasons for Translation Through Even-Zohar’s Poly-System Theory

Abstract

In the last century, a paradigm shift in the scientific field has transformed our perspective on issues and events, our ability to discern cause-and-effect relationships, and our approach to them. This shift has led to radical changes in the scientific field and has accelerated the development of social and educational sciences, enabling such methods to become more prevalent than quantitative ones in the social and educational sciences. As a result, qualitative and mixed method approaches have increasingly replaced quantitative methods, giving rise to various new fields within the social sciences and providing diverse research opportunities. This evolution in research methods has also led to the proliferation of books on research methodologies in these fields. To reach a global audience, these books are predominantly written in English as the Lingua Franca and later translated into national languages if needed, or they are initially written in the native languages of the authors. The choice of translated books can be influenced by the preferences of researchers or translators, gaps in the national literature, the juvenile and unsettled nature of the national literature experiencing significant changes, or their unfamiliarity with current literary innovations. This article examines the justifications provided by translators and translation editors for translating books on research methods in social and educational sciences from English into Turkish within the framework of themes regarding the formation of poly-system theory, as coined by Itamar Even-Zohar as a functionalist pioneer in translation studies, newly emerging in social sciences in the last century. The content analysis, a qualitative research design for document analysis, was utilized in the research through using criterion sampling and maximum diversity, by selecting the prefaces of the translated versions of 20 research methods books by different authors and publishing houses between 2013 and 2022 and exclusively focusing on social sciences and educational sciences. Examining translators’ and editor’s statements deductively through the themes from the poly-system theory, we concluded that there are gaps and turning points in this field both in the national literature and in the world literature, that the relevant literature is not yet settled and trying to become primary and canonized via translated books, resulting in an increasing interest in the field.