International School Students Tell their Stories of Cultural Homelessness and Home Culture Re-entry: A Narrative Inquiry

An examination of graduates from South Africa and how their personal stories of attending and boarding at an international school may offer a clearer understanding on their experiences of cultural homelessness and home culture re-entry. Studies have revealed that adopting and maintaining a congruent cultural identity may be problematic for Third Culture Kids (TCKs) who generally experience at least two cross-cultural moves: leaving their parents' home culture to the new cultural setting and re-entry to their home culture. The purpose of this qualitative, narrative inquiry study was to gain a deeper understanding of cultural homelessness and home culture re-entry through the narratives of TCK's experiences in an international school context. The researcher used a narrative inquiry approach to explore and understand, through student lived experiences, the impact that cultural homelessness has on TCKs' experiences and their ability to re-enter their home culture after spending a number of years living in a boarding school at an international school. The participants of this qualitative study were a purposeful sample of six 18 to 25 year old South African individuals who attended, lived at, and graduated from the American International School of Johannesburg that have re-entered their home culture. The narratives' related that TCK's who attended, boarded and graduated from the American International School experienced feelings of cultural homelessness and challenges with home cultural re-entry. In addition, the participants had a positive outlook on their educational experience and which far exceeded their expectations as they gained a new cultural identity and a more global perspective or worldviews. It is recommended that more research be conducted to maximize the long-term success rate of the scholarship program for host country students. Subsequently, because findings from this study cannot assume the outcomes to be the same for other host country groups, additional narrative inquiry studies should be conducted to explore in more depth the factors that cause TCKs experiences of cultural homelessness and challenges that may arise during the home culture transition and re-entry from other host countries.