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“A TCK is a person who grows up
in a different culture to that of their parents due to their parents’ job.”
This definition has
been created for the specific purpose of this website. It is a merging of the
various definitions that are to be found.
A Brief History of
the TCK Definition:
Ruth Hill Useem was a sociologist who introduced the concept of Third Culture Kid
(TCK) to describe children who spent part of their developmental years in a
foreign culture due to their parents' working abroad.
In 1984 Norma McCaig coined the term Global Nomad (which is synonymous with
Third Culture Kid.) “A global nomad is
anyone of any nationality who has lived outside their parents’ country of
origin (or their “passport country”) before adulthood because of a parent’s
occupation.
In 1999 Dave Pollock and Ruth Van
Reken expanded upon the definition of Third Culture Kid in their book
“Third Culture Kids: Growing up Among Worlds”. This is one of the most widely
used definitions today.
“A
third-culture kid is an individual who, having spent a significant part of
their develop-mental years in a culture other than their parents’ home culture,
develops a sense of relationship to all of the cultures, while not having full
ownership in any. Elements from each culture are incorporated into the life experience,
but the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar experience.”
Most recently Ruth Van Reken and Paulette
Bethel developed a further definition “Cross Cultural Kids”. This is in
recognition of the shared experiences that kids have growing up cross
culturally. However it still recognizes the specific groups covered by this
definition.
"A
Cross-Cultural Kid (CCK) is a person who has lived in—or meaningfully
interacted with—two or more cultural environments for a significant period of
time during developmental years.”
Reference:
Norma McCaig – Global Nomads
Ruth Van Reken – www.crosscultralkids.org
Dave Pollock – deceased – material in care
of: http://www.interactionintl.org
Ruth Hill Useem – deceased - material in care of: Ann B. Cottrell -
http://homepage.mac.com/adcottrell/ann/annindex.html
For a
fuller discussion of the definitions, do have a look at the following web page:
http://www.incengine.org/incEngine/sites/figt/information/gn-tck-atck-schaetti.htm
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