International TCK Conference: 2023
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your interest in the International TCK Conference (ITCKC) 2023 to be held in Chiang Mai, Thailand this October!
Registration is now open, but I encourage you to read our website and familiarise yourself with this so-far unique event. Please read the Vision, Mission, Purposes and Goals statement – preferably before you register!
Until the 2000s the TCK concept was gaining popularity in north America, Europe and Australasia but was slow to gain traction in the Global South where it was generally regarded as applying to ‘western/ Global North’ children living outside their passport countries. We now recognise that the TCK experience is much broader and not the exclusive domain of western children and families crossing international boundaries, but cross-cultural childhood experiences for whatever reason and wherever that might be. The TCK experience is truly an international/ global phenomenon – and we want to explore and celebrate that at the ITCKC 2023.
Since the early 1980s, there have been many conferences and gatherings that have explored and celebrated the realities of ‘growing up cross-culturally’. Some have focused on Mission Kids (International MK Conferences in Manila 1983, Quito 1987 and Nairobi 1989). Others have used the theme of ‘Global Nomads’ (1988) and still others have looked more broadly at families in global transition (FIGT), or the impact of cross-cultural childhood transitions in education (e.g., IMKEC/MKEdS, SPAN etc.), and in 2019 and 2021 the Global TCK Summits focused on Asian and Brazilian TCKs/ MKs.
This conference is unique in that we attempt to gather these various strands, areas of interest and previously overlooked regions to hear from adult TCKs and TCK caregivers as they share their stories so that we can better understand our diversity and learn how we can better care for TCKs – ‘from cradle to grave’. We are intentionally trying to draw in those from regions that have had little prior involvement in such conferences and from under-resourced groups and regions in the Global South. As you register you will be invited to contribute tangibly to make this a reality.
The organizers and many of the presenters come with a Christian worldview, but we welcome and value those from other faiths, or of no faith. It is a conference that focuses on the TCK experience and how we can best meet the needs of this ever-expanding population. The program will offer optional Christian worship and prayer.
Each of us has different stories and TCK perspectives. We will come to the ITCKC with different expectations, and we do not expect to be able to satisfy all. But if we gather with an open attitude of learning and listening as others share, we will not only reflect and demonstrate an attitude of caring, but we will also gain a deeper understanding of the TCK experience globally and discover new ways of taking better care of TCKs – as individuals, within their families and school contexts and as they journey through life.
Whether you are attending as an ATCK, a parent of TCKs, a caregiver/ teacher/ therapist of TCKs, a leader of an organisation that includes TCKs – or any combination of these, or just as an interested well-wisher of TCKs – you are welcome! You are invited to GATHER – SHARE – CARE as we expand the TCK story.
Yours, on behalf of the Shepherds’ Council and the ITCKC 2023 Organising and Planning Committees,
John Barclay
Co-ordinator, ITCKC Leadership Team