This study is a qualitative analysis and critique of the way culture is conceptualized in a collection of teacher educators' stories of their personal experiences with cultural differences and their characterizations of multicultural education. The interpretive practices revealed in their writings suggest that they hold the concept of culture that predominates in the United States, that of a bounded entity belonging to groups and individuals. Teacher educators suggest that conflicts caused by differences among cultures are inevitable, but they argue that emphasizing their commonalities rather than their differences can moderate the tension. The researchers suggest ways of using ethnography as a teaching tool to illustrate the concept of culture as interpretive practice. First, ethnographies allow teachers and students to see how culture is lived as people make and remake their worlds. Second, reading ethnographies helps people uncover presuppositions such as those examined in this paper. (Contains 47 references.) (Author/SM)