The ways in which students experience their education are shaped by the differences among them. Despite many years of equity-based reform in schools, the children most at risk of educational alienation, failure or withdrawal in the second decade of the twenty-first century are, for the most part, the same children who were most at risk 50 and 100 years ago. Many children from low socio-economic backgrounds, rural and isolated areas, non-dominant cultural, language or religious groups, students with disabilities, and many who don't fit the stereotypes associated With a particular subject area, gender or culture, have been shown to experience schools as places of alienation, not as places of growth, opportunity and learning. This chapter proceeds from three beliefs. First, the ways in which schools respond to increasing student diversity need to change if we are to have an educational system that genuinely values both excellence and equity: the twin goals that underpin the Australian Curriculum (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment Training and Youth Affairs [MCEETYA], 2008). Second, teachers have the power and the responsibility to lead these changes, and to be truly transformative in their work (Hattie, 2003; Llngard, 2005 . Third , in order to play this role, teachers need to possess a specific and particular set of skills and abilities. Supporting future teachers as they develop their capacity in these areas is central to the work of teacher education, which is why it is the focus of this chapter. However, it is important to recognise from the outset that this chapter will not indeed, cannot - provide a straightforward checklist or guaranteed recipe for dealing with every form of difference and responding to every instance of diversity. Nevertheless, decades of research into the experiences of school children of all ages and backgrounds have provided guiding principles that can maximise teachers' ability to respond to diversity in ways that reflect a commitment to educational and social justice. This chapter focuses explicitly on helping preservice and beginning teachers to recognise and develop the specific skills they will need in order to respond appropriately to all the learners in their classrooms and to pursue a commitment to social justice. This skill set relates not only to subject and disciplinary knowledge, but also incorporates understandings about students' development, the purposes of schooling, and policies and frameworks that shape teachers' work and diverse forms of difference including gender, socio-economics, cultural identity and more (Martino, Lingard & Mills, 2004).