The article examines case studies from the UK and South Africa regarding ideologies and practices in teaching. In the case of the UK, the authors discuss a teacher's degree course and expose a rift between individual, experiential knowledge and institutional organizational knowledge, all characteristic of the large-scale transformations of education in the UK. In South Africa, the study follows a white teacher teaching in a black township. The authors conclude that student teachers should be taught about the discourse by which teaching is constructed so that they can reflect more critically on their professional practice.