Third Culture Kids - The Children of Educators in International Schools

by Ettie Zilber

The concept of Third Culture Kids (TCKs), children who follow their globetrotting parents around the world, is not a new one and has been widely studied. However, there is one specific group of TCKs who have, until now, been largely ignored - EdKids, the children of international school educators. In this new work, Dr Ettie Zilber brings together all the material she has collected over many years of research on this unique group and allows them to voice their own opinions, feelings and stories for the first time. Spanning a long career in education, Dr Ettie Zilber has served at international schools and other educational centers in the US, Israel, Singapore, Spain, Guatemala and China, served on the boards of ECIS and AISH, presented and published on cross-cultural themes and served as an Adjunct Professor for Lehigh University and Endicott College, teaching courses in Comparative Education and Intercultural Communication.

Genres: Nonfiction

242 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Shelly Donahue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was excited to find this as there is not much research done on the topic. It was insightful, at times made me feel guilty, and then reminded me of this great gift we have given our girls.

[Josianne Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good but very repetitive. Some interesting insights on the multiple roles of teachers and their teacher kids. Would have benefited from a better editor.

[Darcey · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half of the book was more what I was hoping for in terms of style, discussing issues and summarising them and offering suggestions or information of note in how to resolve challenges experienced by "EdKids" in the world of relocation and expatriate living. The second half - though useful with all its first-person responses from study participants - was mostly just listing experiences and there was little analysis done to provide suggestions for how the experience of EdKids could be improved.

This also focused on older children, and not the younger, which is what is currently of interest to me and a number of people I know, so the audience for this should definitely be those working with adolescents/teens rather than assumed to be suitable to cover ALL children of educators internationally.