While case study is considered a common approach to examining specific and particular examples in research disciplines such as law, medicine and psychology, in the social sciences case study is often treated as a lesser, flawed or undemanding methodology which is less valid, reliable or theoretically rigorous than other methodologies. Building on discussions of case study in recent years, I argue that case study generates accounts of practice in educational research, which provide knowledge of experience that has conceptual contribution to research understandings of practice. The complexity situated in analysing and re-presenting practice through case study research, along with the connections that the reader makes between the case and their experiences, is powerful in working to inform everyday educational practice.