Reconstructing Cultural Identities: The Lived Experiences of Jamaican Canadian Immigrant Women of the Pentecostal Faith

Abstract

This study was undertaken to expand my understanding of how Jamaican Canadian Immigrant Women (JCIW) reconstruct their post-immigration cultural identities using the Pentecostal faith. Viewed as a contentious faith tradition, the Pentecostal faith is often misrepresented, misunderstood, and misperceived in various psychology literatures. The findings generated from this research, however, address the saliency of the Pentecostal faith in the lived experiences of JCIW as they strive to cope with post-immigration stressors such as culture shock and acculturation difficulties. 
 This current research was informed by a social constructionist framework to emphasize multiple realities constructed through social interaction and language. Developed by (Moustakas, 1997), Heuristic Inquiry (HI) methodology was employed in this study to collect, analyze, and synthesize the data. The flexible and creative nature of HI allowed for the integration of my lived experiences into the research alongside those of the six participants.
 Utilizing a semi-structured interview method, data was collected and reviewed using thematic analysis. Four categories were identified: Lived Experiences of the Pentecostal Faith, Gender Role Expectations, Defining Cultural Identity, as well as Seeking Counselling and Taking Action. Additionally, numerous overarching themes and subthemes also emerged from the data. The relevance of the results is discussed as they relate to the existing literature and new perspectives arising from the study to inform multicultural counselling. Strengths and limitations of the study are presented, as well as implications for theory, research, and practice.