The authors in this edited volume reflect on their experiences with culturally relevant pedagogy--as students, as teachers, as researchers--and how these experiences were often at odds with their backgrounds and/or expectations. Each of the authors speaks to the complexity and difficulty in attempting to address students' cultures, create learning experiences with relevance to their lives and experiences, and enact pedagogies that promote academic achievement while honoring students. At the same time, every author shows the clashes and confrontations that can arise between and among students, teachers, parents, administrators, and educational policies. This volume includes a foreword, "Looking for a Little Inspiration," by Dawn Abt-Perkins, an introduction, "Clashes and Confrontations with Culturally Relevant Pedagogy," by Lisa Scherff and Karen Spector, and an opening vignette, "Recognizing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Then and Now," by Victoria Whitefield. This volume contains the following: (1) Unpacking the Critical in Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: An Illustration Involving African Americans and Asian Americans (Eileen Carlton Parsons and Steven Wall); (2) Race, Identity, and the Shredding of a District Survey: Following Children into Relevance in an Urban Elementary Classroom (Elizabeth Dutro, Elham Kazemi, and Ruth Balf); (3) The Central Paradox of Critical Pedagogy: Learning from Practice in an Urban "Last Chance" High School (Kysa Nygreen); (4) From Understanding to Application: The Difficulty of Culturally Responsive Teaching as a Beginning English Teacher (Melanie Shoffner and Matthew Brown); Vignette: Lotus: A Pedagogy of Listening (Jacqueline Deal); (5) Reading Romeo and Juliet and Talking Sex: Critical Ideological Consciousness as Ethical Practice (Karen Spector); (6) "'Proper' Spanish is a Waste of Time": Mexican-origin Student Resistance to Learning their Heritage Language (Kimberly Adilia Helmer); and (7) Bodies Before Me (Stephanie Jones). This book also includes a closing vignette, "The Distance of Formality: Working Within (and through) Propriety," by Aaron Kuntz.