This conceptual article, based on data collected and analyzed within a larger study, considers perspectives on cultural diversity and research in the context of the current politicized educational environment within the United States. Drawing from previous research conducted in a graduate course exploring language, literacy and culture, the author articulates three practices that teacher educators and researchers can attend to in order to maintain complex explorations of culture with preservice and inservice teachers. These practices are (1) fostering a discursive view of culture, (2) attending to localized knowledge and (3) acknowledging and developing empathic stances. While examples are drawn from a US context, educational and multicultural concerns addressed are global in implication.