Teaching a course in multicultural education at a largely white, middle-class, suburban liberal arts college has its challenges. Among those challenges is a prevailing naivete among the student population regarding the role sociocultural structures have in creating the kinds of opportunities that afford social privileges; likewise, the students are "blind" to structures that hinder access to resources essential to academic achievement. In this article, the author discusses how she used visual metaphors in teaching a multicultural education course to sophomore undergraduates in a secondary-education program. As other research has shown, metaphors can lead students to self-discovery and subsequent recreation of their paradigmatic explanations of the "goings on" in classrooms. Course assignments that draw upon metaphors can serve as authentic pedagogical tools that challenge the dilemmas educators encounter when they attempt to jar their students' beliefs. Through metaphoric expressions, students can unconsciously express their implicit beliefs as well as reveal their tendencies to misinterpret information preened from coursework and experiences at field sites that are intended to confront their assumptions and presuppositions about teaching and learning. The author presents three studies that explain how metaphors serve to promote inquiry, self-awareness, and growth in teacher candidates. Then, she recounts the results of her interviews with two female teacher candidates whose metaphors and voices raise new questions about self-awareness and its possible impact on beginning teacher effectiveness in diverse settings. (Contains 2 figures and 1 note.)