Abstract
Initial teacher education (ITE) is designed to prepare students for entity into the teaching profession. Exemplary ITE programmes have an explicit intent to graduate better student teachers than other ITE programmes. Specifically, they include more teaching practice, greater partnerships with schools, integration of theory and practice and have a strong focus on priority learners. This chapter reports on one exemplary master’s level ITE programme and how its conceptual framework supported and facilitated the emerging teacher identity of diverse student teachers. Through authentic implementation of its conceptual and theoretical understandings about the role of the teacher, the role of teaching and the role of education, this programme provided a shared vision of teaching and learning guided by those strategies and approaches that allowed these students teachers to be exposed to diverse experiences. Teaching is about learning and its role in shaping children through the curriculum and classroom interactions. As such, teachers and schools must hold themselves responsible for what they do in their classrooms and schools.