The increasing ethnic and cultural diversity of American society demands that classroom teachers prepare students for national and global citizenship. Students of the twenty-first century need to cultivate transformative and reflective knowledge, intellectual skills, and democratic attitudes and values needed to successfully navigate diverse cultural, social, economic and political contexts. Tomorrow's adult citizens will need to reconstruct their communities and the world to become more just, humane, and peaceful. This article discusses six essential principles of pedagogy exemplified by a culturally conscientious social studies classroom, namely: (1) providing substantive work within a learning community; (2) building on students' cultural and linguistic capital; (3) making students' lives the starting point for learning; (4) advocating on the students' behalf; (5) teaching social activism and self-efficacy; and (6) working with families and communities to contextualize teaching and learning. (Contains 11 notes.)