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Abstract
Within teacher education the position of educational foundations courses is increasingly precarious. Such courses are often declared irrelevant by students who embrace the aims of training and immediate practicality over education as the essence of learning to teach. Drawing on student and instructor diaries and diary summaries, the article reports on a self-study of a social foundations course as the author, inspired by C. Wright Mills, attempted to make foundations relevant and powerful by linking biography – students' life experience – and history. From the data, themes of importance to teacher educators are identified. Changes in student perceptions of teaching and learning and promising practices are noted and discussed.