A reform-oriented teacher education model and its effect on the eventual classroom practice of preservice program graduates is examined. An ethnographic description is provided of the program, which emphasized an experiential philosophical base that permeated both the program and the compulsory educational milieu of the training site. Research consisted of three tiers: (1) a preliminary re-analysis of qualitative evaluation data; (2) interviews with graduates concerning their perceptions of their experiences and how these experiences impacted their first year's practice; and (3) an examination of data pertaining to possible implications for improving teacher education for students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Preliminary analysis of program evaluation data revealed that preservice teachers regularly employed learner-centered instructional strategies in their own practice teaching. Later interviews found use of democratic pedagogy to be integrated into these subjects' classroom practice a year later. Distinctive traits of this program contributing to these outcomes included: a site-based learning context combined with a calculated shift from a social behaviorist to a pragmatic approach toward curriculum and instruction methods; a common philosophical base shared by the university and public school sites; and simultaneous teacher socialization and methods training. (Contains 53 references.) (Author/PB)