"Maybe that's a cultural thing…my communication was growing up around the kitchen table": Re-envisioning online learning communities using Wahkohtowin

Métis women have navigated education systems shaped by colonial policies and Eurocentric assumptions that have influenced their identities, educational opportunities, and sense of belonging. Although post-secondary education is associated with improved employment, health, and social outcomes, Métis women continue to experience disparities in employment and educational attainment compared with non-Indigenous women (Statistics Canada, 2021). While online learning has expanded access to higher education, little research has examined how Métis women experience online post-secondary education or how colonialism continues to shape identity, participation, and belonging within digital learning environments. This dissertation explores how Métis women's intersecting identities, experiences of marginalization, and evolving self-concepts influence engagement with online post-secondary education. It examines how socio-historical contexts shape participation in online learning environments. Guided by Métis Research Methodologies and a Métis feminist theoretical framework, the study centres Métis women's lived experiences while honouring relationality, reciprocity, and Métis ways of knowing. Eleven Métis women aged 25 to 80 from across the Métis homeland participated in semi-structured interviews informed by kiyokewin (Flaminio et al., 2020), keeoukaywin (Gaudet, 2017), and Kitchen Table Methodology (Farrell Racette, 2017). Participants beaded during interviews, reflecting Métis traditions of sharing stories while creating together. Beading served as a culturally grounded research method that fostered trust, reflection, and reciprocal knowledge creation. Using relational and reflexive thematic analysis, five themes emerged: online education was transformative despite its virtual format; Métis identity reflected both pride and shame; participants experienced a lack of meaningful online community; many felt expected to educate peers and instructors about Indigenous issues; and Indigenous-only and Métis-specific spaces fostered belonging, identity affirmation, and relational connection. This dissertation contributes to the educational technology field by demonstrating that equitable online education requires more than access. Meaningful online learning requires relationality, Indigenous pedagogies, culturally safe dialogue, and learning experiences grounded in Indigenous values such as wahkohtowin. The study also contributes to Métis scholarship by centring Métis women's voices and demonstrating how beading and Métis ways of knowing can inform Indigenous research methodologies and the design of culturally safe online learning environments.