Using a critical perspective as its framework, this article reports on a case study that explored language practices and perceptions of six South African teachers who participated in a professional development workshop entitled "Language Across the Curriculum." The study reveals the conflicting attitudes of the teachers toward the role of language in education and demonstrates that in contexts where the vast majority of learners do not have English as their mother tongue, a recourse to, and engagement with, the mother tongue becomes an unavoidable pedagogical necessity. Moreover, the data provide evidence to support our argument that even when working against dominant social discourses about language and race, often teachers implicitly re-inscribe them through their own discursive practices. (Contains 6 footnotes.)