El Desarrollo Humano como fundamento de los procesos metodológicos

The location of this research is within the critical theory paradigm because of the way in which it aligns with narrative inquiry methodology, which values what and how

participants give meaning to their stories. Critical theory “acknowledges a reality shaped by ethnic, cultural, gender, social, and political values” (Ponterotto, 2005, p. 130). The ontological positioning of critical theory is historical realism (Guba & Lincoln, 1994), which recognizes that there is a virtual reality shaped by social, political, cultural, economic, ethnic, and gender values (Guba & Lincoln, 1994).

This critical ontological positioning is imperative to understanding how, why, and through which experiences those affected by the three-month wait period come to

develop their expectations and understandings of the three-month wait period, and the influence of the policy on their health. New permanent residents comprise an extremely heterogeneous group of people from diverse cultures, professions, families, and health

statuses, which can differentially shape their experiences and, in turn, their

understandings of the policy. A critical ontological positioning that views individuals’ experiences as real, with the recognition that their perceptions of experience are informed by previous social, cultural, and gender interactions, aligns well with this exploration of the effect of the wait period on new permanent residents’ experiences of health and accessing health services in Ontario.

Epistemologically, critical theory is transactional and subjectivist (Guba & Lincoln, 1994; Ponterotto, 2005). The relationship between the researcher and the participant is seen as being interactional because the researcher and participant influence each other, during and to some degree after the project during the analysis and ordering of the data. The level of trust the researcher can establish with the participant will

ultimately influence the nature of the collaboration between the two. What the researcher can know and appreciate from a participant’s story within critical narrative inquiry is inextricably formed by the dialectical nature of the interaction between the researcher and participant (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). This process of exchange can also be value-

mediated, as the understandings of one can inform the other and potentially deepen the awareness of both parties relative to the issues being explored.

Transparency of the role of the researcher is an important aspect of qualitative research because of the way a researcher’s background can inform their understanding (Ballinger, 2006). I am a graduate student in the Health Promotion field of the Health and Rehabilitation Sciences program at the University of Western Ontario. I identify as a female visible minority as a first-generation Filipino-Canadian. I was born in Toronto, Ontario and grew up in Scarborough specifically. Growing up in Scarborough with other predominantly first-generation visible minorities, I became keenly aware of the struggles my family and friends’ families faced in immigrating and establishing themselves in Canada as racialized immigrants. This experience has contributed to my awareness of the complex challenges immigrants can face throughout settlement. As a researcher, I locate myself within the epistemological paradigm of critical theory, which considers how the researcher and participant can both influence the level of their interaction (Guba & Lincoln, 1994; Ponterotto, 2005). Throughout the study, I was cognoscente of how my

Canadian upbringing and Canadian education as a first-generation visible minority may impact participants and my analyses. By sharing my in-field reflections with my advisory committee and consulting them throughout each step of the research process, they acted as my peer-debriefers to ensure critical reflexivity.

3.3

Methodology

The study aimed to explore the expectations about and the impact of the three-month wait period on new permanent residents’ experiences of accessing health services before and after migration. It also sought to explore if recent immigrants responded to the lag in health services presented by the three-month wait period through creating informal strategies to manage their health-related issues, and whether or not such strategies represented a form of social capital within their communities or families. Given these objectives, narrative inquiry was the selected methodology because it allowed the

researcher to follow the experiences of participants, as they gave meaning to them. Chase (2005) described narrative inquiry as “retrospective meaning making” (p. 656). It is a methodology bounded in storytelling and the primary method for data collection is through participant interviews. Narrative inquiry can be considered a phenomenon in and of itself because the process of an informant putting together several life events in a sequential order requires them to attribute meaning to each event, which they may never have reflected on before (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). A key aspect of narrative inquiry is temporality because not only is an experience temporal, but organizing experiences collectively by reflecting and framing them together is a significant experience that is also bounded and influenced by time (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000).

Researchers and participants essentially “co-create” (Kirkpatrick & Byrne, 2009) a narrative as participants reflect on their lives retrospectively and offer a story, which researchers then re-interpret through their own experiential or theoretical lens and

research objectives. This interaction between researcher and narrator during the interview and other research techniques has many outcomes and implications, given the layers of interpretation that occur throughout the process. It is important for narrative researchers to recognize and consider the different analytic lenses that produce their understanding of

the narrator’s story (Chase, 2005). Understanding the meaningful events people use to construct their identities and inform their lived experiences relative to their historical and social realities is a foundation of narrative inquiry.

The narrative approach employed in this study allowed participants to share their experiences as they saw importance in them over time, and in hindsight. This also applied to the data gathering process, an example of which relates to my initial plan of using a focus group to determine the potential utility of using a vignette methodology. Neither the focus group, for reasons discussed below, nor the vignette methodology took place. One participant commented during an interview that using a vignette would have taken away from his ability to tell his story. This participant described how much he

appreciated being able to share his family’s experiences and what a pleasure it was to be able to do that. The process of reflection through narrative inquiry allowed participants the opportunity to express and juxtapose their stories over different times, places, and between cultures as they feel these various factors influenced their decision-making.