This study examined California's new system of bilingual and cross cultural teacher preparation, its implementation, and teacher candidates' reception of it. The new system, referred to as (B)CLAD, consists of two credentials for preservice teachers and two certificates for inservice teachers: the Cross Cultural Language and Academic Development, and the Bilingual Crosscultural Language and Academic Development. The study focused on the introduction of these new standards for teachers of diverse students at a large research university in Southern California; the implementation process; and teacher candidates' and teacher educators' narrative practices, perceptions, and interpretations, using ethnographic case study methods. In-depth interviews with eight preservice teachers in the program indicated that the teacher candidates demonstrated awareness of the program's main focus as articulated by the teacher educators and that potential tension existed between this focus and the opinions of some candidates. The candidates appeared to agree regarding the teacher educators' generally ineffective modeling of the principles and theories they taught in the program. While the faculty's social reconstructionist commitment is one of their greatest strengths, it is also a potential source of weakness as its strong focus on the principles being taught may not encourage self-reflection on pedagogical practices. Limited time was identified as the primary practical constraint to the program, as well as lack of communication among the program's teacher educators. The findings suggested that the program would be strengthened by including and encouraging self-reflection processes for both teacher educators and students. (Contains 53 references.) (ND)