By February of 1992, I had been a kindergarten/first grade teacher for nearly 4 years in rural Alabama, and I had struggled along the way. One day, sitting in front of Earl Niles1 and 19 other first graders, I realized that my social studies transaction methods class was most likely the turning point in my life, the epiphany that opened my eyes to my real journey, the journey that cannot ignore the social, cultural, linguistic, and economic contexts of teaching and learning in public schools.