Views on the TCK label References
Identity. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 13, 50-59
Hayden, M. (2012) Third culture kids: the global nomads of transnational spaces of learning, in R Brooks, A Fuller & J L Walters (eds), Changing Spaces of Education: New Perspectives on the Nature of Learning, Routledge: London & New York [pp 56-76]
Schaetti, B. (1993). The global nomad profile, in The global nomad: the benefits and challenges of an internationally mobile childhood, London: Regents College Conference, 23 April.
Lauder, H. (2007) International schools, education and globalisation: Towards a research agenda, in M C Hayden, J Levy and J J Thompson (eds), The SAGE Handbook of Research in International Education, London: SAGE [pp 441-449] Mossberger, K., Tolbert C. J. & McNeal, R. S. (2007) Digital citizenship: The Internet, society, and participation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Pollock, D. C. & Van Reken, R. E. (1999) The Third Culture Kid Experience. Maine: Intercultural Press. Poole, A. (2017) Funds of Knowledge 2.0: Towards digital Funds of
Tan, C. (2015) Education policy borrowing and cultural scripts for teaching in China. Comparative Education, 51(2) 196-211 Van, Reken R. (2018) Cross Cultural Kids, available via www. crossculturalkid.org/
Adam Poole teaches at YK Pao School in Shanghai and is undertaking a doctorate that explores international teachers’ identities. Email: tyger106@hotmail.com
Please don’t call them TCKs It is not a helpful term, argues Melodye Rooney There are several reasons why the Third Culture Kid (TCK) descriptor is not helpful for international school students. Firstly, it has morphed from its original application to primarily missionary kids growing up in difficult times, to a vague term too broadly applied. This has resulted in confusion and conflict over who belongs and who doesn’t belong in the ‘tribe’, when we should actually be trying to go beyond tribal thinking anyway. Secondly, the characterization of TCKs as suffering from grief and loss, rootlessness and restlessness, has been based mostly on the model of Pollock and Van Reken (2009), as well as on a limited number of studies – many of which lack proper methodology, haven’t been replicated, or are improperly extrapolated to international school students (Young, 2017; Sander, 2017; Melles, 2014). The old TCK profile was useful in bringing attention to problems in expatriate assignments and in repatriation, but is not helpful in understanding how to educate or counsel international school students now, since the globally mobile lifestyle has changed dramatically in the past 50 years. Finally, the emphasis on forming a ‘tribe’ or finding friends with primarily other TCKs is counterproductive to the transcultural background of these young adults, and is not supported by the growing evidence of how adolescents manage identity in a globally connected world (Sander, 2017; Tanu, 2014; Moore and Barker, 2012). Emphasis on being different and being isolated from monocultural societies will not give them the proper mindset to become the type of global citizens we so urgently need, able to reach out to ‘others’ and to find commonality in order to work together for the good of the planet. The term TCK was originally restricted to those who have spent a ‘significant portion’ of their childhood abroad, and plan to return to their passport country (Pollock and Van Reken, 2009). The vagueness of ‘significant portion’ has meant that researchers have used the TCK term to refer to those who have lived one year or more abroad (Melles, 2014), and to those who self-identify but have never been outside their home country growing up (Van Reken, 2011). The idea of cultural identity as defined by the TCK term is an antiquated concept, discarded by social scientists in today’s postmodern world (Benjamin, 2017; Hall, 1976; Young, 2017). Winter
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TCK characteristics were derived primarily from postcolonial missionary kids, often separated years from their families at a young age, in a time when missions were in crisis (Bowers, 1998; Ward, 1989; Pollock 1989). Too much emphasis is placed on the act of moving, when other confounding factors may actually be causing some to have feelings of not belonging, of anxiety, or of depression, which also affect some nonmobile teens worldwide. Factors such as the reasons for going abroad, the socioeconomic level (i.e. social capital), family relationships prior to the move, gender issues, and ethnocentric values as much as ethnicity and nationality determine cultural identity, and how resilient children become (Bradley and Corwyn, 2002). Thus, the TCK term is both too vague and outdated in its theoretical construct to characterize international students, or to offer effective strategies to improve the outcomes for these children. The term has been useful to start a conversation for those adults who suffered long separations and difficult living conditions 50 years ago, but that conversation is no longer pertinent to the current situation of most international school students. The beliefs that most TCKs suffer grief and loss, lack a sense of belonging (Pollock and Van Reken, 2009), and that ‘mobility harms learning’ (Ota, 2014) are often accepted as fact, but actually aren’t supported when one investigates the body of literature (Sander, 2017). In fact, many of the
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