Teacher preparation programs that separate reflection from action encourage teachers to facilitate school norms and thus help schools function to reproduce social inequalities, while programs that link reflection and action encourage teachers to adopt a more critical role and thus help schools function to transform social inequalities. "Reflection" involves clarifying one's assumptions, assessing consequences, and judging results against moral or ethical criteria. "Action" includes accomplishment of both mental and physical tasks. Teacher preparation programs like competency-based teacher education or field-based training give teachers skills but ignore implicit values, thereby encouraging action but not reflection (that is, "activism"). However, programs without field experience encourage reflection but not action ("verbalism"). A middle-school teacher certification program at the University of Utah attempts to link reflection with action. Students each do an ethnography of a school and prepare papers on their educational philosophy and background. They then practice as teaching aids and write reflective papers on the experience. Their final course involves student teaching, but with seminars and supervision that link reflection and action. Results of the program indicate that students understand both the "hidden curriculum" of schools and, to varying degrees, the limitations on change in the classroom. (Author/RW)