In this skillfully written and incisive book, Marilyn Cochran-Smith guides the reader through the conflicting visions and ideologies surrounding the education of teachers for a diverse democratic society. Mapping the way to reconceptualizing teacher education today, this volume:

• Spells out, in detail, the problem of teacher preparation and why it needs to be understood as both a learning and a political problem.
• Explores an urban teaching program and how its participants came to understand race, diversity, and multicultural issues as part of the larger process of learning to teach.
• Explains why "unlearning" is an unavoidable part of the journey to teaching and teacher education for social justice.
• Uncovers political agendas and their serious implications for the teaching profession itself.
• Offers a much-needed framework for understanding and sorting out the multiple meanings of concepts related to multicultural issues and social justice in teacher education policy.