This text, by two leaders in the field of bilingual education, takes an approach unseen in other bilingual education texts: its basis is a social, rather than psychological, theory of language and learning. Bilingual Education focuses teachers toward the goal of building school communities. Faltis and Hudelson believe that no longer should bilingual education be considered only as a separate program, but rather as an integral part of school communities that all personnel should be involved in and responsible for. This distinguishes this text from others that have been more program-oriented.

Faltis and Hudelson help pre-service teachers better understand bilingual education and prepare them to make sound decisions once they are in classroom settings by showing them what really goes on in bilingual classrooms. Numerous case studies and vignettes offer glimpses inside good bilingual education classrooms that are taken from authentic experiences from Faltis and Hudelson's own work in both elementary and secondary schools. It is their belief that pre-service students will learn best by having models of good bilingual classrooms presented to them.