Ending well: Values in concluding or transitioning community educational technology projects

Abstract

Community-partnered educational research projects exist in a complex network of stakeholders, values, time constraints and funding limitations. Many researchers are beholden to mandates around their funding, as well as the tenure clock and the ‘publish or perish’ mindset. However, building rapport and trust with communities takes time and resource investment that is not always prioritized in academia, and the ending process of a project is rarely explored. In this study, the educational technology project ecosystem and power dynamics in which researchers and participants exist is examined, drawing on the stakeholder analysis and value tensions of Value Sensitive Design to focus on the endings of such projects. Using a cross-case analysis of two long-term educational technology projects, the case study data corpus was qualitatively analysed to identify key themes involved in the ending process, based around retrospective interviews with participants from multiple stakeholder groups. This work identifies types of and strategies for ending, including individual endings and transitions, and develops recommendations for equitable ending processes in the context of educational technology projects. The study explores the dimensions and considerations in ending a project that involves a long-term partnership with a community, developing ways to understand, navigate and plan for the closing process and facilitating less extractive and more mutually beneficial community research partnerships.