What we stand for
We believe all young people have the right to thrive at school. We believe in educational spaces that are critical, creative and inclusive, and that value all languages.
What we do
Shadow Heroes is an arts education initiative that supports young people in embracing all sides of their linguistic and cultural heritages. We do this through creative translation workshops that explore issues of representation, self-expression, colonial history and the power of language.
Working with a network of accomplished translators, writers and other artists, we have developed workshops on sixteen languages, all carefully designed with the students’ needs in mind: Arabic, Bissau Guinean Creole, French, German, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu.
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Led by our cohort of talented translators and writers, our workshops engage students in critical thought through hands-on activities and thought-provoking discussions. Our workshops boost the students’ interest in languages without requiring prior knowledge of any language. They broaden students’ views on what it means to be multilingual and make the most of existing linguistic skills in the classroom. They foster curiosity and intercultural understanding, employing a range of media (music, film, graphic novels, and more) from around the world.
Our approach
Our innovative approach shows how translation can be a prism through which we can examine the world. We teach translation in ways that:
- Help young people to think critically about what they read, watch or listen to.
- Teach young people a set of specific techniques to understand the impact of their writing.