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
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
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
• 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)
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
My Father, Brunei 1961 – trying to look like Wade Davis
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Back to the UK 1963
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Malaya (Malaysia) 1965
Note the spillway in the background
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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.)
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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)
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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).
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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’,
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Parallels with other groups
• Second & Third-generation immigrants• Refugees and other non-voluntary migrants• Serial migration• Privileged migration
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Research Findings• Research question • Methodology• Preliminary Findings
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Preliminary Findings:A broader worldview?
• The ‘international bubble’• The ‘tall poppy syndrome’
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
It’s not all in the looks!
• Same looks – different cultures/ different looks – same culture…
• An identity marked by marginality: “always being different”
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Modes of socialization
• Melbourne vs a more ‘traditional’ expatriate location.
• Time, depth, norms…• Places and difficulty gradients…
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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)
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
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)
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Top Related