Research (Rey, 2008) from Monash University, Melbourne, into how effectively secondary school libraries provide relevant literature for new-arrival TCKs, has been carried out in the form of a comparative case study of three Sydney independent schools.
Underpinning the study is the idea that teacher-librarian knowledge and attitudes affect school library policies and practices and concurrently are affected by the school context in regard to where it positions itself along the spectrum of national to international identity. Therefore data collection involved school context, librarian knowledge, attitudes, as well as policies and practices.
In light of post-structural, identity and intercultural literacy theory for internationalising curricula, the case study sought to examine through relevant texts the understanding of TCK issues and associated school library literature provision during transition at schools with regular intakes of internationally mobile expatriate adolescents. It sought to determine whether existing practice provides English-competent TCK students with resources that address their particular interests, issues and experiences, and if current teacher-librarian thinking is open to participation in existing or future transition programs as a possible avenue for further development of the understanding of internationalisation of curricula and intercultural literacy.
Three independent schools in Sydney, involved to greater or lesser extents in international education, agreed to participate. It was found each responded very differently to its TCK population and the teacher/librarian responses and understandings were strongly linked to school identity and the visibility of the TCK population.
Results brought to light several significant factors affecting delivery of school library services as a part of an internationalised curriculum addressing TCK new-arrival students’ needs resulting from the school context. At school level they included school identity, TCK visibility and characteristics, and wider school transition practices.
However, school approaches to transition - from responses to large 'fluid' international student intakes to planned importatation of international cohorts are impacted by attitudes and practices surrounding identification and differentiation, which in turn impacts intercultural literacy education in the school.
For more information concerning this research please contact us.
Additionally, as a result of this research project, Intercultural Transitions is being established to provide consultancy services to international schools addressing the needs of new arrival internationally mobile students. If your school is interested in doing more during the new arrival, transition phase for TCKs, please email
Below is a listing of organisations/people doing research involved with expatriates and Third Culture Kid's. TCKs are often defined as those children who live outside their own and either parent's culture for extended periods during their developmental years. They are also commonly referred to as 'global nomads' and 'internationally mobile expatriate' students. Now there are many Adult TCKs (ATCKs) who are reflecting back on the issues, benefits and outcomes such experiences have produced.
If you know of more links that you think should be included please contact us on:
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'Among Worlds' Magazine for TCKs at Interaction International. (Thanks to Helen Fail for this tip.)
Below is a list, still a work in progress, of some useful authors and works that may be of interest and involving expat authors, and subjects.
EXPATRIATE LITERATURE BOOK LIST Target Age Group: 14-16+ year olds.
EXPAT AUTHORS LIST – A Work in Progress
Aciman, Andre, Out of Egypt. Angelou, Maya, I know why the Caged Bird Sings (US) Baldwin, James
Burgess, Antony, A Clockwork Orange Coetzee, J. M., Michael K (SA) Carey, Peter, Oscar and Lucinda (Aust) Joyce, James, Short Stories (Ireland) Pasternak, Boris (Russia) Asimov, Isaak (USSR) Henley, Patricia McCarthy, Mary, (US) Lawrence, D.H. (UK) James, Henry Portrait of a Lady (US) Sebald, Max Chatwin, Bruce Greene, Graham Durrell, Lawrence Wharton, Edith Pound, Ezra Stein, Gertrude, Tender Buttons: objects, food, rooms. New York. Claire Marie, 1914. Couteau, Robert, The Continual Pilgrimage.Hemingway, Ernest, Short Stories, The Sun Also Shines James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Mansfield, Katherine (NZ) Short Stories Sharatchandra, G.S. (Indian US) Bharati, Mukherjee (Phillipines)
Current Writers:
Kennedy, T. and Cummins, W. The Literary Traveler, http://www.webdelsol.com/LITARTS/Literary_Traveler/ferney/ Petter, Sylvia, The Past Present. (Geneva Writers Group) (Aust.)Lancaster, Rosemary. Je Suis Australienne: Remarkable women in France, 1880-1945.UWAP (University of WA Press?)
Turner-Hospital, Janet Border Crossing
Non-Fiction: Biography:
Aciman, Andre: Letters of Transit: Reflections on Exile, Identity, Language and Loss. 1999. (ed.). Essays by five authors.
Anthology: Australian expats: stories from abroad. Southern Cross Group. Global Exchange: 2005. Earnest, Ernest. Expatriates and Patriots. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1968 McCarthy, Harold T. The Expatriate Perspective. New Jersey: Associated University Presses, 1974
Said, E., Out of Place: A Memoir
If you have a service that could assist expats and would like to LINK WITH Expatairwaves.com: click here.
The Sarsaparilla Souvenircomes of age, and is now linked to the Australian Society of Authors webpage . Also, a new edition is about to be released in the coming months. This time it will include a map, a new cover and a little tidying of the text.
Expatairwaves is pleased to announce upcoming results from latest research into literature and school library services for TCK (Third Culture Kids) expat adolescentsat three schools in Sydney, Australia.
Research
