Complex but integrated: Exploring social and cultural identities of women Third Culture Kids (TCK) and factors predicting life satisfaction

The 21 st century, defined by cultural diversity and global mobility, has triggered an unprecedented increase in multicultural individuals, defined as people who internalised more than one culture. Contrasting evidence related to multiculturalism calls for more explorative research to understand cross-cultural identities. The present study explored social and cultural identities of adult female Third Culture Kids (TCKs) (n = 122), multicultural individuals who live mobile lives, and adjustment factors of a global mindset, social inclusiveness and essentialism to find predictors of life satisfaction. We classified social identity into four we-concepts: we-group, we-category, we-attributive and we-axiological, and cultural identity into three configurations: integration, categorisation and compartmentalisation. Our results suggested that TCK define social identity predominantly based on passport country (we-category) and relationships with family and friends (we-group). We indicated that axiological (value-based) social identification and global mindset buffered essentialism and categorisation known to disturb cross-cultural relationships. There was a general tendency for integrated cultural identity, with cultural configurations of categorisation and compartmentalisation correlating positively with essentialism. Hierarchical regression analysis evidenced that integrated multicultural identity, global mindset, and social inclusiveness were significant positive predictors of life satisfaction for female TCK. These results feed into a better understanding of the TCK configurations of collective identities and highlighted new factors related to TCK well-being.     

Where I’m from? Third Culture Kids about their cultural identity shifts and belonging

This study explored the affect of Third Culture Kids (TCKs) towards their home and host culture(s) and how this affect may indicate possible cultural identity shifts as distinguished in Sussman’s (2000) cultural identity shift model. To this end, the method of poetic inquiry was used. The poems were concerned with TCKs’ affective experiences (Prendergast, 2009). We also investigated whether TCKs described their belonging in terms of personal relationships rather than in terms of geographical locations.Twenty TCKs, ranging in age from 26 to 70 years and from five ‘home cultures’, expressed their early cross-cultural experiences through the free verse poem of “Where I’m from”. A mixed method approach of qualitative and quantitative research was applied, by combining poetic inquiry using a free verse poem format and clustering these data by means of coding in Atlas.ti. TCKs’ poems were analyzed using belonging, affect, and practices-food-nature-events as key codes.Findings revealed that TCKs expressed stronger positive affect towards their host cultures than towards their ‘home’ cultures, indicating a subtractive cultural identity shift. We also found that TCKs defined their belonging more in terms of personal relationships than in terms of geographical locations. This study shows that TCKs’ sense of belonging seems more related to the question who than where I am from.     

Somewhere in the Middle: The Measurement of Third Culture

This study explores the concept of “third culture,” which has not been tested by quantified measures since it was introduced. This study develops the 10-item measurement of third culture based on three dimensions—equality, commonality, and transcendence. Two hundred and fifteen international married individuals from 42 countries participated in a self-administered email survey. The findings indicated that the new scale is reliable and functions as a single dimension instead of as three subdimensions. Suggestions for future study as well as several implications on theory and methodology are discussed, drawing on the experience of this study.     

The role of intercultural competence,in the relationship between intercultural experiences and creativity among students

We studied the interplay of intercultural competence, intercultural experiences, and creativity among Russian students from Moscow (N = 272). We expected the students from culturally diverse groups, attending the courses on cultural issues, to be more creative. We based our expectation on the idea that cultural diversity and cultural learning are associated with a higher level of intercultural competence that might contribute to students’ creativity. We measured the intercultural experiences by cultural diversity of study groups (a number of foreign students in the groups and the intensity of friendly contacts with them) and by cultural learning (a number of culture-related courses that students attended). We measured creativity by the “Many Instances Game” from the Runco Creativity Assessment Battery (rCAB). We measured intercultural competence by the adapted scale of Fantini and Tirmizi. We discovered positive associations of intercultural experiences in the university with students’ creativity. Such components of intercultural competence as attitudes and skills (the adaptability of behavior), played an important role in the students’ creativity. The attitudes were positive and the skills were negative, related to the creativity. We also revealed that these two components of intercultural competence mediated the relationship between the intercultural experiences and creativity of students. Based on the results, we discussed the factors of the educational environment which may enhance or prohibit creativity.     

Culture Shock and Social Support: An Investigation of a Chinese Student Organization on a US Campus

Previous research has explored common dimensions of culture shock across groups of international students, examined factors influencing intercultural adjustment of individual sojourners, and in the meantime, suggested that communicating with same culture members is minimally helpful for intercultural adjustment. By investigating a Chinese student organization on a US campus and analyzing the qualitative data collected via multiple methods, the researcher found that (a) culture shock is contextually based; (b) a student organization can play an instrumental role in helping students to cope with culture shock and gain intercultural competence by providing social support; and (c) communicating with same culture members can help intercultural adjustment. Implications for international student orientation, study abroad programs, and community-based help programs for international students are discussed.     

Negotiating Narratives of Human Trafficking: NGOs,Communication and the Power of Culture

This article draws on interviews with anti-trafficking NGO employees in Thailand to illustrate the use of narratives as a tool for communicating cultural values. Drawing on theories of modernization, culture, and liberation psychology, I assess the way anti-trafficking NGO employees construct narratives, or “stories,” about human trafficking. These narratives rely on Western values associated with modernization, the role of NGOs in development, gendered constructions of victimhood, “Othering,” and Orientalism. Analyzing these narratives, I build a theory of “culture as a space of safety:” a self-reinforcing mechanism whereby employees ritualistically retreat from the overwhelming circumstances they confront in their work.     

Cultural Diplomacy,Branding and the American Film Institute's Project: 20/20

The Global Cultural Initiative (GCI) was a flagship cultural diplomacy effort introduced by the Bush Administration in the mid-2000s; one project of this initiative was the American Film Institute's Project: 20/20, a program of 19 films from five continents scheduled to tour the United States and abroad. This paper is a historical exploration into how the Bush Administration reconstructed American identity and culture through framing, and how that framing was embedded within cultural diplomacy initiatives like the GCI. This paper contributes to an understanding of how intercultural dialogue is often based on key messages and constructed ideas.     

Learning styles and their impact on cross-cultural training: An international comparison in France, Germany and Quebec

Every person has his or her own individual way to learn and to solve problems in day-to-day situations. These personal cognitive strategies, acquired in a long socialization process are called “learning styles” and may differ depending on gender, age or culture.In this study, the learning styles of over 300 students in business administration in France, Germany and Quebec are examined with the Learning Style Inventory (LSI). Representative and significant learning differences where found. This is why the LSI can be used in a first step for the illustration and comparison of typical patterns of learning. In a second step the results may be of use to international trainers in making decisions about course design and methods of cross-cultural training in relation to the learning profiles of the participants.     

An investigation of ELT students’ intercultural communicative competence in relation to linguistic proficiency, overseas experience and formal instruction

This study aims at exploring how linguistic proficiency, target culture experience, and formal education are related to the learning of intercultural communicative competence (ICC). It presents the theoretical underpinnings of ICC in the light of recent literature. Then, it continues with the methodology section that includes a quantitative research study in which 35 students at the Department of English Language Teaching (ELT) at European University of Lefke (EUL) participated. The participants of the study had different linguistic proficiencies ranging from waystage or elementary level (A2) to vantage or upper intermediate level (B2). The paper concludes by stating the findings of the research and also by making some recommendations for language teachers to better develop the learners’ ICC in teaching English as a second language (TESL)/teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) contexts.     

Territory and treatment of diversity: The case of the Communities of Cantabria,Asturias, Andalusia,and Valencia (Spain)

The presence of culturally diverse students in the classrooms of educational centers suggests that the autonomous communities with educational powers in Spain address the issue in a rather complex way. The case that concerns us in this text centers on the legislative and organizational analysis of four autonomous communities in Spain: Cantabria, Asturias, Andalusia, and Valencia. Each of the territories analyzed has distinct characteristics in terms of the approaches taken in relation to this type of student body, derived not only from the number of such students present in the classrooms, but also from other criteria of an ideological nature and educational or pedagogical positioning given this reality. We move from a macro analysis to a more concrete one that tries to define what, who and how the autonomous communities and the educational centers coordinate this process.This leads us to the consideration of at least three elements that are related to this decision-making process: the legislation that results from this reality, the specific organization of the educational centers, and the structures that have been created ad-hoc to respond to diversity.The process must be understood from a broad view of the situation that goes beyond that which is exclusively school-based. We must not forget that this is a matter of human rights, of democratically agreed-upon values, and of establishing appropriate conditions so that rights and values can be made possible within educational contexts. Without forgetting this macro perspective, the analysis includes the way in which communities present the cultural project and how this is manifested in the official curriculum in the form of practices that are determined by the construction of an image of childhood.     

Warranting theory,stereotypes, and intercultural communication: U.S. Americans’ perceptions of a target Chinese on Facebook

Extending prior literature on stereotypes about ethnic groups and warranting theory, this experimental study examined the effects of exposure to a target Chinese international student’s Facebook page with self-generated (stereotypically positive or negative) and/or other-generated wall posts (stereotypically positive or negative) on U.S. participants’ (N = 550, Mage = 21.38, SD = 3.82) perceptions of task attractiveness and behavioral tendencies (i.e., willingness to communicate/ cooperate) toward the target. Supporting warranting theory, results demonstrated that when other-generated posts were present and disconfirmed the Facebook page owner’s self-generated posts, other-generated posts mitigated the effects of self-generated posts in most cases. However, when other-generated and self-generated wall posts were consistent, other-generated posts produced an averaging effect. In addition, the type of dependent measure, and the dynamic interplay between stereotype content and the valence of self-generated posts also mitigated the warranting effect of other-generated posts.     

Culture and conflict: Understanding, negotiating, and reconciling conflicting constructions of reality

The paper explores the relations between culture and conflict that emerge when parties with differing constructions of reality come into contention regarding the distribution of power, control, and influence. While differences in the construction of reality do not necessarily mean conflict, and while conflict does not necessarily lead to violence, differences in the construction of reality that are codified and embedded in “unassailable” belief systems, such as those associated with fundamentalist political, economic, and religious systems, can elicit and sustain serious forms of violence, including ethnic and religious cleansing, genocide, and torture. This paper argues that we must recognize the power of culture in constructing our realities, and the reluctance we have as human beings to tolerate challenges to these realities because they introduce unacceptable levels of uncertainty and doubt. The consideration of culture in the mediation of conflict broadens options for resolution by introducing possibilities outside the limits of one's own cultural spectrum, including an improved understanding of the role of history and life contexts in generating shared meanings and behavior patterns. Following a discussion of various examples of cultures in conflict associated with political and religious fundamentalism, the paper advances a series of recommendations for understanding, negotiating, and mediating conflict via the use of cultural understanding, learning, and the development of cultures of peace.     

Department of Culture,Media and Sport's Peer Review Pilot

April 2009 saw the publication of the documents generated by the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport's museum Peer Review Pilot. This Policy Review offers both an overview of the process and a conceptual critique both of the Peer Review Pilot and the McMaster Review criteria on which the pilot was based. It is argued that the McMaster Review is grounded on a reading of excellence as “life-changing experiences” predicated on an imagined transformative aesthetic moment and that it is only by defining excellence in this way that McMaster could secure peer review as a legitimate means of identifying excellence. When transferred for the purposes of the Peer Review Pilot to the museum sector – with its long traditions of pedagogic and civic reform – this narrow reading of “changing lives” is no longer sustainable. The dislodging of the McMaster grounding assumption within the practice of the Peer Review Pilot creates conceptual fissures that can be traced throughout the Pilot's documentation. Specifically, a reading of the Pilot suggests both a need for a more careful reading of “peer”, a recognition of museums' multiple lines of accountability (including to the public) and the ongoing need for methodologies that might allow for an understanding of “life changing” within a much border frame.