This paper reports a collaborative self-study designed to examine the practices and experiences of a teacher educator and her students with the support of critical dialogue partners. The authors explore the tensions and possibilities that arise as a teacher educator attempts to foster both a pedagogy of care and a pedagogy of inquiry in a mathematics methods course. The authors conclude that a mathematics teacher education course permeated with care and peppered with inquiry has the potential to build preservice teachers' confidence and empowerment as the course develops.