Colles castelleres universitàries

other Asian passport countries. For some educators, this job placement is their first overseas experience, while others have been working internationally for a longer period of time. The average time that teachers remain on staff is between two and five years, with some teachers on staff between ten or more years.

One reason that I selected this particular research site as being Ideal-Typical is because, for years, I have anecdotally observed students negotiate cultures, and they seem to be able to do this well because of their ability to code switch between cultures and languages. Given the cultural demographics of the school, I think by exploring the participant experiences, in this particular research site, other TCK students could also benefit from the results presented in the findings (in chapter 4), in the suggestions and call for future research (in chapter 5), and in my final recommendations (in chapter 6). The description of culture-sharing patterns of behaviour, belief, and language that students, at this research site, will serve as a framework for better understanding the TCK experience.

3.2.2 Description of Research Participants and Selection

The participants of this study are Third culture kids (TCKs) whose

primary culture of home is non-Western, and who negotiate a secondary Western culture into their identity. In total, eight participants were used for this research, and were between the approximate ages of sixteen to eighteen years old.

Participants are students at the research site, but are not my own students. TCK participants whose primary culture is non-Western, may be associated with a more marginalized cultural identity due to global hegemonic capital associated with Westernization.

The term marginalization will refer to students whose primary discourses do not possess equivalent cultural and/or social capital as dominant, hegemonic discourse often associated with Western culture. In the context of this study, dominant cultural discourse is that of Western hegemony, because the school’s curriculum is Western-based, and many employees come from Anglo-Western backgrounds. It should be noted that this research does not assume that Western culture is the only form of dominant, hegemonic culture, however, it is one culturally hegemonic power within the context of this particular site. Participants of this study are those whose primary cultures of home environment differs from the secondary cultures of the school. For the purpose of this study, TCKs whose primary culture belongs to Western hegemonic culture are not used, because the cultural negotiation challenges this kind of student faces differs from the focus on more globally marginalized cultural identities considered for this research. TCKs of Western primary discourse are more at risk in different ways than TCKs of non-Western primary cultures, therefore, to include both would deviate from the focus of this particular research.

Similar to the site selection, this study uses LeCompte and Preissle’s (1993) criteria based sampling techniques. Participants who possess non-Western primary discourses are selected according to typical and ideal-typical case criteria.

Because this study seeks to explore negotiation of marginalized cultural identities with that of hegemonic cultural identities, participants must possess at least one marginalized primary culture of home and negotiate a secondary, globally hegemonic culture (Western culture, in the context of this study) into their

identity. To describe participants and how they negotiate their cultures, Pollock and Van Reken (2009)’s suggestions on the benefits of being a TCK is helpful, which is that TCKs have an “expanded worldview” (p. 88), a “three-dimensional view of the world” (p. 93), and are “cross-culturally enrich[ed]” (p. 95). In order to select typical and ideal-typical (Preissle, 1993) participants who possess Pollock and Van Reken’s (2009) traits, above, I chose to focus on participants enrolled in the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme offered at the school.

The IBO (2013) mission statement indicates that it “works with schools,

governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment” (p. 175), which relates to the TCK “expanded worldview” (Pollock & Van Reken, 2009, p. 88). The mission statement also says that IBO (2013) aims to “encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right” (p. 175), which establishes a

“three-dimensional view of the world” (Pollock & Van Reken, 2009, p. 93).

Lastly, IBO (2013) states that it “aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect”, which aligns with the TCK trait of being

“cross-culturally enriched” (Pollock, 2009, p. 95). Due to its alignment with positive traits of the TCK, students enrolled in at least one IB course were deemed as typical and ideal-typical (Preissle, 1993) participants for this study.

An arms’ length method was used to recruit participants so to mitigate power dynamics of my role as teacher and head of department at the school. I

worked with the IB Programme Coordinator at the research site to email an initial recruitment letter to students (appendix C) and to parents (appendices D and E), and this recruitment letter was also reinforced by follow-up with classroom teachers of IB students. Classroom teachers who permitted me entrance for participant observation also did so through the mitigation of power dynamics, as the High School principal shared my permission request transcript, in my behalf, with potential classroom teachers. Students who were interested in participation of the study volunteered through either the IB Diploma Coordinator and/or their classroom teacher. Mitigation of power is further discussed in the validity of claims discussion provided in chapter 6.2. The recruitment letter provided participant candidates a description of the desired cultural identity for the research, so that volunteers could verify whether or not they were eligible for participation. After voluntary participation and consent, I initiated stage one of observation data collection, described in the data stage collection procedure section that follows my discussion, in the next section, of methodological issues.

Through the initial sampling techniques previously described, volunteers included participants who aligned with at least one of the following cultural identities: a Thai national who has attended the school since junior high school or earlier; a Thai national who has lived outside of Thailand for an extended period of time; an individual of non-Thai and non-Western descent who has attended the school since junior high school or earlier; an individual of Thai and non-Western descent who has lived outside of Thailand for an extended period of

time; and an individual of biracial descent and/or multiple-ethnic descents of which all ethnicities are non-Western.

The rationale for the aforementioned participant cultural identities is described in the following rationale. A Thai national who has attended the school since middle school or earlier has been exposed to the cultural ethos of the school for multiple years since early childhood, and therefore, may identify with both Western and Thai cultures. A student of non-Thai and non-Western descent surfaced data that represents a cultural identity whose citizenship country differs from both Thai and Western cultures, important to the research because the predominant primary culture of home is Thai and the predominant operative culture at school is Western. An individual of non-Thai and non-Western descent who has lived outside of Thailand for an extended period of time assisted in providing thick description of the nuances between participant experiences negotiating culture. And lastly, an individual of biracial descent and/or multiple-ethnic descents helped to limit generalization of cultural identity, as to

acknowledge the diversity of cultures present within the research site. Limiting cultural generalizations decreases superficiality of the findings and, therefore, assists in the credibility of the report.