This dissertation explores the experiences of middle childhood pre-service teachers (PST) across two academic years as they learn to teach English language arts to diverse students from conflicting sociocultural contexts. To help PSTs navigate the tensions across contexts, this study introduced culturally relevant (Ladson-Billings, 1995; 2014) and ethnographic (Heath & Street, 2008) perspectives in one Middle Childhood Education (MCE) teacher education program and then considered how such a perspective shapes PSTs' instructional approaches during student teaching. Specifically, this study examines how interactions during "mentoring sessions" between one university supervisor (me) and the PSTs foster a cultural perspective within the PSTs' conceptual and practical development (Grossman, Smagorinsky, & Valencia, 1999). It also follows the PSTs into their student teaching to consider how PSTs appropriated a cultural perspective during interactions with me as their university supervisor and with their peers into their pedagogical decisions in the classroom. It is important for the field of teacher education to understand what and how ideas about teaching ELA in diverse classrooms are taught in pre-service teacher education and how they are taken up by PSTs. Although previous studies have examined some of these conflicting messages that PST must consider, there is a need to study how these conflicts get taken up interactionally (Bloome, Carter, Christian, Otto, & Shuart-Faris, 2005) to better understand the moments in which teacher educators can learn how to support PSTs in becoming reflective teachers with a deep commitment to all of their students. By focusing in on how learning is constructed during specific interactions and then zooming out to consider the larger settings and people that are reflected in and constructions of these interactions, this study provides significant theoretical and pedagogical implications for the field of English teacher education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]