Extant physical education pedagogy research indicates teacher candidates are likely to adopt personal teaching styles reflective of what they were taught at college and that they overwhelmingly view teaching through Euro-centric lenses. We know that Caucasians are becoming the new minority and that Euro-centric teaching styles may be ineffective in reaching African American students. Thus, education pedagogy must undergo a radical shift before student-centered curriculum becomes reality. Physical education researchers are calling for a core philosophical shift as they urge teacher-training institutions to encourage teacher candidates to move away from Euro-centric and toward cultural relevance as they offer Physical Education curriculum reflective of realistic student populations. The present study sought to do just that. In this study, teacher candidates, in a classroom lab setting, were to facilitate a culturally relevant physical education pedagogy reflective of the demographic diversity of the participating high school's student population. Twelve teacher candidates – all Caucasian – were asked to facilitate a non-traditional curriculum component of African Stepping to their students (N=113) whose racial demography was majority African American. To test for differences, the teacher candidates taught four classes of the traditional unit (Multi-Sport Activities) and four of the non-traditional African Stepping unit. The high school physical education faculty randomly assigned the students to their small groups (10 students per group) and unit selection. The purpose of the present study was to examine responses and communicated attitudes of secondary school students and teacher candidates to the two curriculum units. The researcher assessed perceptual changes of both teacher candidates and classroom students as follows: (a) perception surveys, (b) audio-taped semi-structured interviews, (c) field notes, and (d) daily critical incident documents. Data analysis, conducted by trained coders, included identifying and analyzing themes. Results show overwhelming perceptual differences between the two curriculum units. Some of the findings include: themes of teacher control, student boredom and lack of involvement, evidenced in the traditional unit, as compared to themes of student creativity, involvement, and ownership from the Stepping unit. Additionally, student discipline problems, unchanged in the traditional unit, were non-existent in the Stepping Unit. All students – regardless of ethnicity - enjoyed the stepping unit. Teacher candidates, uncomfortable veering from how they had been taught to teach, saw personal growth resulting from the Stepping Unit. These results support research calling for curriculum realignment reflective of student demographics. Keyword(s): curriculum, multiculturalism/cultural diversity, pre-service/student