Simple question? Not necessarily for an ACS student. Christopher O'Shaughnessy, author and recent guest speaker at ACS Cobham, explores what it means to be a Third Culture Kid (TCK).
It may seem like a straightforward question, but for some the answer may be far from simple. Third Culture Kids (“TCKs”) are those who’ve grown up with multiple cultural influences during their developmental years, usually with a big degree of transience – and for them the answer to “Where are you from?” may be complex, but reveals a beautiful and increasingly important story of identity, adaptability, and relevance in an increasingly globalised world.
Just about every student attending an international school is a TCK: they’re influenced by the culture they experience at home as well as the unique culture that makes up the international school experience – this is where they gain valuable skills in cross-cultural understanding and a broad worldview. Many students aren’t originally from the country they attend school in, and so experience it as a host culture alongside their home and school life. Being a TCK doesn’t mean all of the cultures you experience meld together, it’s more like having access to a hallway that connects the different rooms representing the cultures that are a part of your life, and having the ability to move in and out of each room as necessary. All of this adds to the rich diversity that makes TCKs a powerful force in a world moving closer and closer to their own experience.
Being a TCK comes with a wealth of advantages: an extensive relationship bank, broader worldview, increased adaptability, and extensive practice at building friendships, and of course – adaptability. There are also some specific challenges to the experience of growing up amongst worlds. TCKs tend to struggle with conflict resolution since they usually can fall back on transience allowing them to simply avoid or wait out conflict. They can also focus so much on adaptability that they don’t devote enough attention to building a core sense of identity. TCKs also struggle with more unresolved grief than many of their more stationary counterparts.
Born in England as a military brat to American parents, author and speaker Christopher O’Shaughnessy has lived and worked across the globe and to date has ventured to more than 100 countries. Tales from these experiences form part of the fabric of Chris’ work and have helped shape his passion for helping the world benefit from the experience of expats, global nomads, and cross-cultural communities. The effects of globalisation, technological advances, and rapidly changing sociological trends have presented the world with new challenges, but also new tools and possibilities at every level: from individuals to communities, from companies to countries.