Over four decades ago, Muriel Saville and Rudolph Troike first published “A Handbook of Bilingual Education” (1970). The booklet aimed at being of practical value to educators, particularly teachers of English as a second language. The authors noted that while research was of great need in the area of bilingual education, this type of publication was of utmost importance, even if answers there were offered with “full knowledge that they may change with additional information and experience” (vii). They also formulated some fundamental questions concerning bilingual education: What is bilingual education? Why have bilingual education? Who is bilingual education for? When should bilingual education begin? And how does a bilingual education program start? Currently, after decades of research, scholars and bilingual educators around the world can address questions less tentatively than Saville and Troike in their days (See García 2009; May 2012; López 2001; Skutnabb-Kangas 2000). While over the years research has shown more complex social, political, and economic domains to understand bilingualism and multilingualism, the foundations of education that is bilingual and multilingual remain strongly associated with the cultures shaping and shaped by multilingual speakers or language learners. Culture has always been linked to language, as language maintenance and language reclamation, for example, have been linked to cultural integrity and survival. We argue that such relationships are easily assumed and thus require more nuanced exploration. From its roots in anthropology, linguistics and psychology we present a historical overview of culture within bilingual and multilingual education. We also analyze misperceptions of culture in bilingual education from treatments in curricula to ideas and practices. In addition, we review theoretical and methodological aspects in order to discuss future directions of the field where culture can be thoroughly theorized to be an essential component of bilingual and multilingual education.