The notion that teacher education should emphasize high-leverage practice, which is research based, represents the complexity of the subject matter, bolsters teachers' understanding of student learning, is adaptable to different curricular circumstances, and can be mastered with regular use, has traction in scholarship. Nevertheless, how teacher educators might support high-leverage practice concurrently within programs and school institutions remains an open question. We suggest that investigating adolescents' thinking about complex historical concepts and conflicting evidence can amplify high-leverage social studies teaching practice by defining its criteria and strengthening some key representations, like eliciting students' ideas about the subject matter and scaffolding analytical reading. Yet school-institutional factors that devalue systematic investigation of students' thinking as a way to impact instruction may impede this amplification. Using activity theory, we discuss the implications of our findings for promoting ambitious pedagogy through social studies teacher education amidst constraining school climates.