In the 1980s several qualitative studies of midwestern public high schools that serve students of color were conducted. Many teachers attempted to reach these students by adopting culturally responsive teaching strategies. While some teachers insisted that abandoning traditional pedagogy was to give up on socially legitimate teaching, others tried to narrow the social distance between themselves and their students by building personal relationships and by taking students' ways of life into account in making decisions about teaching. Anecdotes and vignettes illustrate some successful and unsuccessful approaches. Some teachers who tried to bridge cultural differences were perceived as condescending or phony or were criticized by students for ignoring things students thought they would need to know in the mainstream world of education and society. Observation of successful teachers suggests that it is important for the teacher to act in a manner that students regard as appropriate for teachers, to provide them with information needed for mainstream educational activities, to acknowledge their social identities and cultures in curriculum and instruction, and to invite them to explore multicultural perspectives. (Contains 17 references.) (SLD)