"This paper highlights the findings of a qualitative study that supports Athanases & de Oliveira's (2008) suggestion that advocacy must be a pillar of TESOL/ESL and Bilingual Education teacher preparation programs. The finding highlight the narratives and meaningful ways in which TESOL/ESL and Bilingual Education teacher educators and professionals describe curricular and programmatic challenges faced while preparing candidates to work with advocate for English Learners (ELs) and their families. Subversive pedagogical practices of hope (Barko-Alva & Jo, 2016) and transformative resistance (Giroux, 1983; McLaren, 2015) theories are used as frameworks for understanding the ways that teacher educators address the challenges posed by institutional structures.