This study explores the experience of teacher candidates and instructors in teacher education programs in California and Denmark. With both California and Denmark grappling with the way their current education system is or is not meeting the needs of the current population, this comparative study aims to better understand the dichotomy present. Through a set of interviews, the study focuses on the concepts of social responsibility and culturally sustaining pedagogies and how stakeholders experience these in their programs. Results show that Danish participants experience a more defined purpose and common understanding of the role of schooling in Danish society, and their role in it as teachers. Californian participants expressed a desire to reshape the state's education system to be more racially and socially-just, but with varying ideas of how to achieve this. Implications of the comparison are discussed.