Premium
The Steward Street School experiment: a critical case study of possibilities
Author(s) -
Burke Catherine,
Grosvenor Ian
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/01411926.2011.615386
Subject(s) - situated , narrative , contingency , sociology , construct (python library) , critical theory , pedagogy , state (computer science) , epistemology , philosophy , linguistics , algorithm , artificial intelligence , computer science , programming language
This article presents a critical case study of an inner city state school that for a decade (1940s–1950s) attracted the interest of a wide contingency of educationalists, policy makers, researchers, artists and various press and film media. It has been argued that if we are to progress ‘social alternatives’ in education, researchers need to construct ‘critical case studies of possibilities’ drawing inspiration from traces of experimental and utopian practice in schools from the past as well as the present. The article demonstrates how this might be achieved through research that questions dominant narratives, goes beyond the public accounts of particular sites of experimentation and explores multiple‐narratives embedded in the records of past practice. The authors argue that such situated counter‐currents in the history of education are necessary both to inform our collective notions of past experience and enrich our regard for future possibilities.