How an Antipodean Perspective of International Schooling Challenges Third Culture Kid (TCK) Conceptualisation

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Fanning ◽  
Edgar Burns
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Third Culture Kids ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Third Culture ◽  
Secondary Schooling ◽  
Third Culture Kid ◽  
The Third ◽  
Global Movement ◽  
Cultural Reality

This article recounts the story of Jack’s primary and secondary schooling career across several countries and eventual relocation and tertiary education in Victoria, Australia. His narrative is described here as an antipodean educational trajectory. What is meant by antipodean education is contrasted to the long established concept of the third culture kid (TCK). There are overlaps in these concepts. The argument is made, however, that Jack’s travelling and multiple education cultural mix gives him a different sense of himself that is not fully accounted for in the TCK literature. Global movement of people for employment and other reasons such as politics, governmental or service professions, continues today, Taking children with working and mobile parents has long been characterised as creating third culture kids who do not belong to either originating or hosting societies. Today, however, it is less the case that this can be adequately described as travel ‘out from’ and ‘back to’ the geo-political centres. This changing socio-cultural reality means re-examining what kinds of educational opportunities and experiences children are exposed to and the effects of these on young people.

scholarly journals What is Home for a Third Culture Kid?

2018 ◽  
pp. 9-18
Author(s):  
I. Alyeksyeyeva
Keyword(s):  
Social Group ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Future Orientation ◽  
Typical Feature ◽  
Place Identity ◽  
Third Culture Kids ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Third Culture ◽  
Third Culture Kid ◽  
High Competence

The article looks into the HOME concept as it is verbalized in discourse of Third Culture Kids (TCKs), a social group defined as people who have spent a considerable period of their developmental years in a culture different from that of their parents’. The topicality of the study rests on the fact that though the sociological research into the TCK phenomenon started in the 1950s, yet it is only in the 21st century that cognitive linguistics, cultural linguistics, socio- and psycholinguistics start to examine this social group. Since current globalization processes have turned workforce migration into a typical feature of modern societies, parents’ mobility exposes more and more children to two or more cultures. As long as children face cultural differences before their identity has been constructed, they have difficulty affiliating with any social group. The analysis of the terms used as synonyms for TCK has revealed that the components of this concept are ‘mobility’ (interpreted either as occasional relocation or as a lifestyle feature), ‘belonging’ (to the whole world rather than a country or region) and future orientation (next generations are expected to be made up largely by TCKs). Regular moves change TCKs’ perception of the most natural human concepts. Thus, the concept HOME becomes quite puzzling and controversial and may be interpreted in a number of ways: from a place where one is currently living to everywhere or nowhere. The HOME concept is vital for one’s self-identification: it gives one a sense of belonging and anchors one emotionally to a place and a community. However, TCKs, well-versed in saying goodbyes, tend to avoid bonding, i,e. strategies aimed at forming close relations, though they acquire a high competence in bridging, i.e. in strategies that deal with overcoming cultural dissimilarities. Understanding a partner’s place identity helps to make their behaviour and their worldview predictable, which turns the ‘Where are you from?’ question into a typical one at the first encounter. It is this very question that is inevitably perceived by TCKs as a challenge, since they are conscious of their vague or peculiar conceptualization of the HOME concept.

The Future of Our Histories: Young Rural Voices from Dullstroom-Emnotweni

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-56
Author(s):  
Christina Landman
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Rural South ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
The Future ◽  
Rural South Africa

This article reports on three sets of interviews conducted with children and young people living in Dullstroom-Emnotweni on the Mpumalanga Highveld in eastern South Africa. Firstly, 50 learners between the ages of 10 and 14 were interviewed on their dreams for the future. Later that year, in 2011, a total of 60 young people who were still unemployed ten or more years after having finished school were interviewed on what was left of their dreams. Five years later, in 2016, a third group of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 were interviewed in order to establish whether the situation of marginalised young people in rural South Africa had changed. The primary school learners expressed their career hopes in terms of the needs of their marginalised society, that is, to become nurses, teachers and social workers. The first group of young people interviewed in 2011 blamed their shattered dreams on the unavailability of tertiary education and the reality of HIV infection. The second group, interviewed in 2016, quite similarly, expressed their concerns as a lack of job and educational opportunities, a lack of agency and choice, a lack of respect from society and decision makers, and an inability to escape from drugs and unhealthy sex.

Going Beyond the Plateau: Ministry to Young Catholic Adults in the Third Millennium

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-93
Author(s):  
Richard Rymarz
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Young People ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Religious Involvement ◽  
New Evangelization ◽  
The Third ◽  
Pastoral Response ◽  
Third Millennium ◽  
Youth And Young Adults ◽  
Cultural Reality

This paper proceeds on the assumption that many Catholic youth and young adults reach, relatively early in life, a plateau of religious involvement and commitment. This plateau is characterized by, among other things, a loose religious affiliation but not an overt hostility to the tradition. In order to move beyond this plateau those who work with these young people need to develop a pastoral response that is sensitive to this cultural reality. A number of guiding factors and principles are suggested such as the difficulty of the task and the need to focus more on proactive proclamation. Many of these strategies are reflective of the need for a new evangelization.

scholarly journals “Homeless” at Home: Linguistic, Cultural, and Identity Hybridity and Third Space Positioning of Kenyan Urban Youth

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Karanja
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Urban Youth ◽  
National Level ◽  
Third Space ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Third ◽  
Hybrid Language ◽  
Ethnic Divide

In Kenyan urban locations where speakers of a myriad of different languages and cultures converge, young people have experienced ambivalence, ambiguity, and contradictions regarding language, culture, and identity that they can ascribe to themselves, both as unifying factors at the national level, as well as marking their identity as urban youth. In an attempt to bridge the ethnic divide, and the divide between what they perceive to be traditional values and the urban, modernized values, Kenyan urban youth have developed a “hybrid” language called “Sheng”. This language has opened up avenues for renegotiating their identity and cultures, moving them beyond unitary, fixed identities and binaries of traditional versus urban, and local versus global. Thus, this paper uses the post-colonial notions of hybridity and the third space to interrogate ways in which these youth have challenged the established codes of their identities, and negotiated their ambivalences in a third, hybridized space that is fluid and shifting. Educational opportunities for Kenyan urban youth within the third hybridized space positioning are discussed. Au Kenya, dans les centres urbains, là où convergent une myriade de langues et de cultures, les jeunes ressentent des contradictions et une certaine ambigüité quant à leur langue, leur culture et leur identité, cette identité qui les caractérise au niveau national comme de jeunes urbains. Ces mêmes jeunes ont développé une langue « hybride » appelée “Sheng” dont le but est clairement de combler la division ethnique, ainsi que la division entre ce qu’ils perçoivent comme étant des valeurs traditionnelles et celles comme étant des valeurs urbaines ou même modernes. Cette langue a ouvert la possibilité de renégocier leurs identités et leurs cultures, et d’aller au-delà même de l’unité, c’est-àdire au-delà des identités fixes et des binaires, tels que traditionnel vs. urbain ou local vs. global. Cet article utilise donc les notions postcoloniales d’hybridité et de troisième espace afin d’analyser la façon dont ces jeunes ont défié les codes établis de leurs identités respectives et comment ils ont négocié leurs ambigüités dans un troisième espace hybride, fluide et variable. Cet article examine également les différentes possibilités éducatives pour les jeunes kenyans urbains dans ce troisième espace hybride.

scholarly journals The Global Nomad’s Guide to University Transition

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-195
Author(s):  
Yi (Leaf) Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Transition To College ◽  
Third Culture Kids ◽  
Third Culture ◽  
Home Culture ◽  
Host Culture ◽  
University Transition ◽  
The Third ◽  
University Life

The Global Nomad’s Guide to University Transition (Quick, 2010) is specifically written for third culture kids (TCKs) who will begin their journey into university life. TCKs are defined as those who grew up in places outside of their home or passport cultures and have no sense of belonging in neither the home culture nor host culture. These students usually find their sense of belonging in the third culture, which is the community of people who share the experience of living outside their passport cultures. This book also aims to prepare parents of TCKs to better understand their children’s challenges thus assisting them with a smoother transition to college.

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