The divide between university and classroom is a longstanding issue in teacher education. The disconnect between sociocultural theory often endorsed by universities and more behaviorist practices frequently enacted in classrooms is particularly acute in elementary literacy instruction--and is often exacerbated in high-poverty schools that tend to serve minoritized youth. Studying how teacher educators facilitate preservice teachers' (PSTs') learning across this divide is imperative if PSTs are to take up research-supported sociocultural and culturally responsive literacy practices. Drawn from a larger study on PSTs' literacy learning, this paper highlights one literacy teacher educator's attempt to bridge the university-field divide. Implications for how literacy teacher educators can support PSTs to enact sociocultural and culturally responsive literacy practices within the oft-occurring constraints in high-poverty schools are addressed.