Cultural democracy is a concept which should be incorporated into the educational philosophy supporting all aspects of the teaching of English; specifically, it should be the basis of bicultural education. This concept stresses the importance of recognizing the attributes and needs not only of cultural and ethnic groups, but also of individuals within those groups. To achieve bicultural goals for their students, educators must learn more about intra-group variability and the cultural values of individual students. These values are formed in the home and community and fall on a continuum from traditional to modernistic; conflict between these values may be the basis of major differences between groups and between individuals within groups. Traditional socialization practices tend to develop field-sensitive cognitive styles in children while modernistic socialization practices facilitate field-independent styles. Recent split-brain research lends support to this distinction. Viewed from this perspective, being bicultural also means being bicognitive, and the way for educators to develop a bicultural/bicognitive capacity in their students is through a culturally democratic curriculum--one which focuses on the socio-cultural characteristics of the individual learner. (FL)