This article discusses alternative education based on the results of an exploratory research conducted in Switzerland. This research was carried out in three schools implementing ‘alternative’ or ‘different’ pedagogies. The three case studies were chosen with the concern of opening to the diversity of pedagogies that make up the landscape of alternative schools today: in this case a Montessori school, an outdoor education school, and a democratic school. The same mixed-methods device was used for each case study, through semi-structured interviews with the different actors of the three schools, non-participant observations, documentary analysis and drawings. This contribution offers a synthesis of this exploratory research and a critical analysis that highlights the diversity of the alternative schools through contextual and pedagogical elements.