ABSTRACT
The dominant tradition favors containing and assimilating cultural differences rather than treating students as bearers of diverse social memories with a right to speak and represent themselves in the quest for learning and self-determination. Shaped in the intersection between social and cultural reproduction and the disruptions produced through competing, resisting, and unsettling practices and discourses, education is an ongoing site of struggle and contestation. Embodying dominant forms of cultural capital, schooling often functions to affirm the eurocentric, patriarchal histories, social identities, and cultural experiences of middle class students while either marginalizing or erasing the voices, experiences, and cultural memories of so-called 'minority' students. Cultural Studies offers some possibilities for educators to rethink the nature of educational theory and practice as well as what it means to educate future teachers for the twenty-first century. The drive in the United States toward the vocationalization of colleges of education is evident in the ascendancy of reforms emphasizing efficiency and applied learning.
