Welcome to the Third Culture Kids, International website! We are pleased to offer this as a resource to all our international families. Fundamentally, our focus is Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and their families. The TCKI website (tcki.org) exists to provide resources to families with TCKs. A TCK is “an individual who, having spent a significant part of the developmental years in a culture other than the parents’ culture(s), 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.” This definition of a TCK comes from the first couple editions of the book, “Third Culture Kids” by Ruth Van Reken and David Pollock. This is our working definition of a TCK. In upcoming blogs, we will dive into the definition, and break down the various components of it. The book that we link to is the 3rd edition. It has a few edits and additions, but has much of the same information.
Our goal on tcki.org is to resource global families with tools to help them in their journey. Sometimes sifting through the many options of books, blogs, and articles can be daunting. The internet is packed with information, but it is not always easy to track down. When you are looking for specific information about raising kids in a globally mobile culture, we hope we can provide a variety of resources. You can look through the categories, tags, or click on one of contributing bloggers profiles to see things specifically from them. There will also be resources posted that may not be specifically designed for internationally families, but we believe offer insight for all international families.
In an effort to provide up to date resources, for a variety of globally mobile families, we have specialists in several areas working with us. TCKs are raised in a variety of families. This website will have specialists that provide insight and resources for several types of TCK families. Our specialists will focus on business, diplomatic, military, and missionary families. We will also provide educational, mental health, and pastoral resources for these international families. Each specialist is a professional in the area of their expertise, with many years of international experience. All the contributors are TCK leaders in their own specialties. They were raised in internationally mobile homes, and have worked with TCKs on a variety of platforms. Most of these resources will be of benefit to all TCK families, not just the demographic that the specialist is focused on.
So, whether you are looking for information on how to help your kids adjust to a foreign culture, understand educational options for your kids, or get some resources to help you walk through life with your kids, we want to provide you tools. If we recommend books, we have read the books and will try to give you links where you can find the books. We don’t sell anything on this website, but will help you find where you can track down items we recommend.
