Our International Education: Stories of Living, Teaching and Parenting Abroad

218 Pages·2016·2.77 MB·English

by  Sherry Marx

Our International Education

Our International Education
Stories of Living, Teaching and Parenting Abroad
Sherry Marx, Monica Housen and Christine Tapu
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-94-6300-284-4 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-94-6300-285-1 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-94-6300-286-8 (e-book)
Published by: Sense Publishers,
P.O. Box 21858,
3001 AW Rotterdam,
The Netherlands
https://www.sensepublishers.com/
Printed on acid-free paper
Cover photograph by Sherry Marx
All Rights Reserved © 2016 Sense Publishers
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the
exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and
executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
PRAISE FOR
OUR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
“In this compelling book, Sherry Marx, Monica Housen, and Christine Tapu
transport the reader through their year living and working in Hungary with their
families. Through their beautifully-crafted tales they speak to us of learning and
loving in another country, an unfamiliar language, a different culture. The power of
the book comes through the authors’ careful attention to detail in describing their
lives there: they dwell on touching moments like the child who misses his dog;
they notice the layout of the room in the apparently mundane task of querying the
utility bill; and they carefully bring the reader close as they recount the ebbs and
flows of the difficult episodes – conflicts with colleagues, illness, difficult news
from home, and more – that inevitably arise. Marx, Housen and Tapu bring their
different experiences to life as their narratives speak both singly and in conversation,
their different textures and nuances enriching and complicating the reader’s sense of
the authors’ variously troubling, enlivening and profound year away from home.”
– Jonathan Wyatt, EdD, Senior Lecturer & Director of Counselling and
Psychotherapy, University of Edinburgh and co-editor of On (Writing) Families:
Autoethnographies of Presence and Absence, Love and Loss
“This book provides a perfect example of what autoethnography can do. The
stories Sherry, Monica, and Christine tell about the Fulbright year they and their
families spent in Hungary make compelling reading about “real” lives that are not
compartmentalised and show how a csokis csiga can make all the difference to how
the day turns out for everyone!”
– Pat Sikes, PhD, Professor of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Sheffield and
editor of Autoethnography Sage Benchmarks in Social Science Series
“This collaborative self-narrative juxtaposes parallel stories of three US educator
mothers who moved their families with young children to Hungary to participate
in the Fulbright Classroom Teacher Exchange (FCTE) and Scholar programs.
Their chronological documentation of cultural, professional, familial, and language
adjustment in a foreign land gives the reader two important lessons about cross-
cultural adaptation: (1) cross-cultural experiences of individuals are diverse despite
their common denominators on the surface; and (2) cross-cultural adaptation
is a gradual and often unintentional process. This well-crafted collaborative
self-narrative is an excellent read. The interlaced stories of three authors can also
be used as raw data for comparative analysis in undergraduate and graduate courses
focusing on cross-cultural learning.”
– Heewon Chang, PhD, co-author of Collaborative Autoethnography and
Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Multicultural Education

For our children

TABLE OF COnTEnTS
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
Prologue
Chapter 1: Sherry’s Story 3
Chapter 2: Monica’s Story 11
Chapter 3: Christine’s Story 19
Summer
Chapter 4: Sherry’s Story 29
Chapter 5: Monica’s Story 41
Chapter 6: Christine’s Story 55
Fall
Chapter 7: Sherry’s Story 71
Chapter 8: Monica’s Story 83
Chapter 9: Christine’s Story 97
Winter
Chapter 10: Sherry’s Story 113
Chapter 11: Monica’s Story 129
Chapter 12: Christine’s Story 143
Spring
Chapter 13: Sherry’s Story 157
Chapter 14: Monica’s Story 171
Chapter 15: Christine’s Story 185
ix