An ethnographic study of 12 student teachers in an elementary school field-based program determined, through observation and interviews, how they reacted to the socializing process that is an integral factor in practicum experiences. Institutional and social forces that shaped these preservice teachers' behaviors and ideas were the elementary school curriculum and the accountability/testing movement. The majority were observed doing routine, mechanical types of teaching activities involving little creativity. There was heavy emphasis on pupil achievement and managing class activities in such a way that the children would "get through the material." At the end of the practicum, most of the student teachers felt they had learned how to manage and organize the given curriculum and classroom schedule and acquired sufficient discipline techniques. Their reactions to this socializing experience ranged from passive or active acceptance to latent or overt resistance. Study results are discussed in terms of two social science theories: (1) the reproduction theory, which focuses on the school's role in producing individuals adjusted to the institutional life of the dominant society; and (2) the resistance theory, which focuses on the way in which individuals or groups struggle against social domination. (JD)