day 2 acknowledging & embracing third culture kids

A Cultural Imperative for Australian Schools: acknowledging and embracing Third Culture Kids

25th Asia Pacific Annual ConferenceCitizenship . Creativity . Connectivity . Compassion

March 2011Annette Rome, Director –Teacher Education, Wesley College

Institute for Innovation in EducationGabrielle Desilets – PhD Candidate, The Australian National

University, Canberra

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Wesley College VisionA world class coeducational independent school

developing the whole person

through timeless principles of learning

to know

to do

to live with

to be

with innovation and wisdom


Wesley College Institute All about Innovation

The Founding Patron: “I am greatly honoured to be associated with the Wesley College Institute

as its Founding Patron. I congratulate the Wesley College community, and particularly the Principal of the College, Dr Helen Drennen, on their commitment to the Institute. I, and the members of the Institute Advisory Committee, look forward to making a contribution to this important work and I am pleased to invite you to take an interest in, and to support the

work of the Wesley College Institute.” Sir Gustav Nossal, Founding Patron


• experience of spending developmental years abroad leaves a sufficiently significant impact on the adult profile of the individual that the group can be distinguished as a cultural group separate from the background (local) or passport culture (Cameron 2003)


My Father, Brunei 1961 – trying to look like Wade Davis


Back to the UK 1963


Malaya (Malaysia) 1965

Note the spillway in the background


Research Context

• More and more people ‘on-the-move’• Technological Advancements:

• Transport (Air Travel)• Communication (Internet)

• Research focus: case-study of TCKs• Population not defined by any common cultural, ethic

or national denominator• International schools and research in international

education• More empirical research needed


What is a Third Culture Kid (TCK)?

• What the research tells us• TCKs common

characteristics• Parallels with other groups

who also experience a cross-cultural upbringing (second and third generation migrants, refugees, etc.)


Third Culture Kids: What the research tells us• Official definitions (1):

• Unseem (1963 in Hayden 2006);…they are not integral part of those countries.

When they come to their country of citizenship (some for the first time), they do not feel at home because they do not know the lingo or expectations of others” (Unseem 1963 in Hayden 2006)


Third Culture Kids: What the research tells us• Official definitions (2):

• Pollock and Van Reken (1999, 2009)“has spent a significant part of his developmental

years [living in one or more countries] outside the parent’s culture”. They build relationship with people and places along the way, but often lack full ownership [or sense of belonging] in any culture” (Pollock and Van Reken 1999: 19).


Third Culture Kids: What the research tells us

Official definitions (3):• (Grimshaw and Sears,

2008:262)

‘Globally mobile young people live in a state of

liminality’,


TCKs Common Characteristics (1)• In general terms, the

‘traditional’ TCKs are;• children of skilled

workers, • business professionals, • diplomats, • humanitarian aid

workers, • military and missionaries

etc.


TCKs Characteristics (2)

TCK have generally (Cockburn, 2002:477):• Being raised in a cross-cultural world• Being raised in a highly mobile world• Develop through different and varying patterns of

movements.• Expected repatriation or relocation in the short to

medium term.• Distinct difference = identity• Privileged lifestyle “elitist community• System identity.


Parallels with other groups

• Second & Third-generation immigrants• Refugees and other non-voluntary migrants• Serial migration• Privileged migration


In a nutshell…• 1st culture =

passport or parent’s culture

• 2nd culture = host(s) cultures

• 3rd culture = the sum of the 1st & 2nd combined.

Another departure party : Malaya 1966


These shared life patterns include : a) the high degree of status experienced by foreign employees

and their families; b) nurturing by caregivers other than the immediate family c) participation in a network of families deployed by the same

employing body and residing together in a given host country;

d) participation in an international network of families making up a social and educational network in a host country;

e) patterns of mobility whereby the foreign deployed family moves between countries on a contractual basis;

f) the experience of cross-cultural immersion; g) the overriding anticipation of repatriation to one’s passport

country; and h) the experience of early and repeated relational loss.


An Australasian School Country of Birth is Australia

Australian Nationality Language Spoken at Home

% Composition

Australia Australian Nationality English 71

Australia Australian Nationality not English/unknown 3 incl ‘unknown’ lang

Australia Australian Nationality2 languages at home

(incl Eng) 8

Australia Not Australian English 1

Australia Not Australian not English/unknown 0.2 incl unknown lang

Australia Not Australian2 languages at home

(incl Eng) 0.2

Not Australia

Australian Nationality English 3

Not Australia

Australian Nationality not English/unknown 0.3

Not Australia

Australian Nationality2 languages at home

(incl Eng) 0.5

Not Australia

Not Australian English 4

Not Australia Not Australian not English/unknown 9

incl 50 unknown lang/International Students

Not Australia

Not Australian2 languages at home

(incl Eng) 1


Research Findings• Research question • Methodology• Preliminary Findings


Research questionUnderstanding the consequence of having been raised ‘internationally’, or having lived

in more than one country as a child or adolescent, on your sense of identity and

belonging.


Methodology

• Anthropological Ethnographic fieldwork and participant-observation

• Out-of-School activities • In-School activities• Semi-structured interviews and life histories• Regular meetings with a network of TCK

based in Victoria• Facebook: interactions with Australian TCKs

on the social network pages


Specific needs of TCK – Australian context

Australian TCKs experience is best understood in comparison with their experience in ‘more traditional expatriate destinations in developing nations’…

Focus on 3 themes:- Worldview- Categories of difference- Modes of socialization


Preliminary Findings:A broader worldview?

• The ‘international bubble’• The ‘tall poppy syndrome’


It’s not all in the looks!

• Same looks – different cultures/ different looks – same culture…

• An identity marked by marginality: “always being different”


Modes of socialization

• Melbourne vs a more ‘traditional’ expatriate location.

• Time, depth, norms…• Places and difficulty gradients…


A TCK community?“when amongst other TCKs the mere

recognition that all share this genuine lack of understanding of a traditional ‘home’ provides relief” (Cockburn, 2002:479)

- TCKs’ discourse expresses the contemporary disjuncture in defining cultural and national identities

- an interesting and yet overlooked case study


Suggestions:• the environments in which TCKs learn should

reflect the broader global environment and avoid the parochial

• Schools could capitalize in the willingness and desire to learn languages

• Screening and training of teachers who work with TCK children

• Friends ARE family for TCKs. Schools need to support the whole family (esp if limited employer provision)


But overall• Do not judge by

appearances• Find out about young

person’s personal history• This is just good practice

in education - sharing international experiences good for everyone/ enhance knowledge & world peace Christmas in the Malaysian jungle

1966


References and suggested reading

Allen, K (2000) The international school and its community: think globally, interact locally, in International Schools and International Education, eds M C Hayden and J J Thompson, Kogan Page, London

Cameron, R ; the ecology of ‘third culture kids’: the experiences of Australian adults, Murdoch University 2003

Cockburn, Laura (2002). "Children and Young People Living in Changing Worlds: The Process of Assessing and Understanding the 'Third Culture Kid'." School Psychology International 23(4): 475-485.

Grimshaw, Trevor and Coreen Sears (2008). "`Where am I from?' `Where do I belong?': The negotiation and maintenance of identity by international school students." Journal of Research in International Education 7(3): 259-278.

Hayden, M. C., B. A. Rancic & J. Thompson (2000). Being International: Student and Teacher Perceptions from International Schools. Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 107-123.

Hayden, Mary. 2006. Introduction to International Education. London: SAGE.


Kramsch, C. (1993) Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Langford, M. E. (1998). Global Nomads, Third Culture Kids and International Schools. International Education: Principles and Practice. M. Hayden and J. Thompson. London, Kogan Page: 28-43.

McLachlan, D. A. (2007). "Global Nomads in an International School : Families in Transition." Journal of Research in International Education 6(2): 233-249.

Pollock, D. C. and R. E. Van Reken (1999). Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds. Yarmouth, ME, Intercultural Press.

Delors J, The treasure within; http://www.see-educoop.net/education_in/pdf/15_62.pdfTCK Kids website: http://tckid.com/

References and suggested reading (cont)


day 2 acknowledging & embracing third culture kids

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