Life history research: A contribution to processes of adult learning ...

There is a vital interconnection between voice, identity, and place. The analyses of the four participants’ experiences
of identity modification after immigration consisted of observing what they expressed about themselves in
connection with the different places in which they have lived. In telling their stories I included my own, since the
search for self-understanding after the experience of immigration was the initial inspiration for this project. The
unravelling of labels like Mexican, woman, Latin American, Canadian, immigrant, middle-class, and educated, was
part of the process; they are layers that I encountered when exploring the sense of who I am because of these social
locations and beyond them. Life away from Mexico offered the four participants and myself the opportunity to
identify and analyze these labels, and to become aware of the ways in which they shaped us in our country of origin
and the new one as well.
Informal conversations with other Mexican women living in Canada sparked my interest in the topics of gender and
identity. My friends spoke about the way life in Canada helped them discover parts of themselves they were not
aware of before. I heard friends speak about how their choice to live in Canada was not necessarily based on
financial opportunities, but rather on the quality of the lives they lead in Canada, which they felt was not attainable
in Mexico. Gender-based expectations can be a considerable source of pressure for women; a change in cultural
context can alleviate some of that pressure (Espin, 1999). Even though the four participants are adult women whose
ages range between mid-thirties and early sixties, their stories remind me of Karen Close’s (2001) concept of the
unfinished woman. Regardless of their age, these women intuitively knew there was a part of themselves that was
missing in order to launch lives that fully represented their convictions and potential. For a variety of reasons, the
Canadian context offered them this possibility.
Adela, Papalotl, Gloria and Erica’s life histories are stories of individual lives shaped by history, politics, society
and culture in Mexico and Canada. Characteristics of their Mexican context such as class, education, age and
personal values are all ingredients in the recreation of their new life in Canada. Their stories are as much about what
it took them to settle in the country as immigrants as about the path each one of them took in order to find “their
place” in Canadian society. Initially, the lack of personal networks and a solid, Mexican community in the Canadian
cities in which they live posed a challenge; yet, at the same time, the lack of a familiar ethnic community was
liberating. For them, the interaction with unknown cultural and social ways stimulated the self-definition
mechanisms (Reygadas, 2002). In these conditions, immigration represents an opportunity to re-imagine the self,
individually and collectively—as Mexicans, as women and at different levels of their personal lives.
The research questions that initiated this work were the following: How do immigrant women recreate themselves
after migration? What do they learn about themselves as women by being in Canada? How have they been affected
by the context in which they now live (socially, professionally, physically, and emotionally)? My interest was to
understand whether the participants experience immigration as an opportunity to revise their previous knowledge
and create new one – both about self and context—from a gender perspective. Life history methodology was ideal
for this purpose, since the revision of their biographical stories allowed for the identification of previous and new
conceptions of self. In order to do this, I explored the concept of identity, as well as notions of colonialism and the
connection between gender and immigration. The theoretical lenses included elements of critical theory and
feminism, as well as cultural studies theory that explain the connections between culture and identity (Hall, 1996).
In educational settings, the understanding and acknowledgement of immigrants’ cultural backgrounds can lead to
more effective ways of creating educational contexts that truly support them to become active, integrated members
of their new society. The four study participants, like a vast majority of immigrants to Canada, can be placed under
the category that John Ogbu (1990) calls voluntary minorities. In this context, immigrants’ belief that life in Canada
will bring about improvement for themselves and their families predisposes them to acquire different kinds of
knowledge that will favor their transition into Canadian society. The four participants’ stories offer numerous
examples of ways in which the women actively sought to learn “Canadian ways” in order to become part of their
new society in meaningful forms that are in line with their values and identities. Educators must be aware of the fact
that, in spite of immigrants’ willingness to embrace the ways of the new society, their original identity, values and
knowledge must be recognized, respected, and drawn upon in order to support their integration into the new society.
This is the only way of contributing to immigrants’ integration while keeping them whole and healthy as individuals
and in communities.
The Method: Voice, Knowledge and Life History