Irreplicability in methodology: embracing the historical contingencies of educational technology research during the 2020-2021 United States school year

The claim that research should prioritize qualities of replicability is foundational to scientific knowledge production. At the same time, replication is not an algorithm but instead based on a disciplinary community's values and norms. With this understanding, we reflect on how varying degrees of replicability and irreplicability are always co-constituted in research projects through historically situated relationships between humans, methods, and technologies. We explore our own research collaborations and choices during the 2020-2021 US school year - defined by the COVID-19 pandemic and emergency remote teaching - to recast irreplicability not as a mark of pseudo-science but instead as an inherent part of studying teaching and learning during emergency conditions. We argue that explicit attention to irreplicability can not only be generative in research design but can help researchers think about themselves as historical actors who are accountable to the particularities and contingencies of the conditions in which they work.