The struggle, or interrelationship, between [authoritative and internally persuasive] discourses, determine the history of an individual's "ideological consciousness." (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 348) The "ideological consciousness" of 11 elementary schoolteachers in a linguistically and culturally heterogeneous school about meanings of social responsibility is central in this inquiry. In analyzing what social responsibility might imply for educators' practices, we draw on the works of pedagogical theorists (Casey, 1993; Dei, 1996; Delpit, 1995; Freire, 1970; Hooks, 1994; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Sleeter, 1993; Toh & Floresca-Cawagas, 2000) concerned with equity in education. Discourses of social and educational philosophers (Greene, 2000; Ignatieff, 2000; noddings, 1992; Naht Han, 1992; Saul, 1995; Vanier, 1998) and sociocultural theorists (Bakhtin, 1981; Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998) also inform this research. This inquiry was stimulated by our respective perspectives as a classroom teacher struggling with the British Columbia Ministry of Education authoritative (Bakhtin, 1981) discourse on social responsibility in her own teaching and a teacher educator working with teachers on practices and perspectives that might support the inclusion of students of diverse ancestries and capabilities.