After six years of evaluation, debate, negotiation teacher educators in Flanders finally have a new legal framework for their job: the Decree on Teacher Education, 2006. In the article we use this Decree as an exemplary case to unravel and understand the political, educational and ideological agendas that constitute the debate on (the future of) teacher education. We start from to simple questions: what are the consequences of the Decree for the actual practice of teacher education in Flanders and why did it take so long to get to the new Decree? Our analysis includes three levels and combines textual, discourse and 'governmental' analysis (Simons & Masschelein, 2006). The first order analysis describes the actual development and the content of the decree. It focuses on the surface level of the decree as "text" (see Codd, 1988). From there we move beyond description to a second level of analysis revealing the particular concept of teachers' professionalism that is "installed" by the decree (Ball, 1995; Ozga, 2000). The third order analysis addresses changes in society, and education in particular, in order to understand the emergence of a new discourse on teachers' professionalism (cf. Simons, in press; Howlett & Ramesh, 2003).The first order analysis reveals the interplay of different agendas (goals, interests) that are at stake. First of all there is an institutional agenda. In Flanders three different institutional models for teacher education had developed historically, each aiming at a different population of (future) teachers and operating in different organisational contexts: nursery, primary and lower secondary teachers were trained in socalled Institutes for Higher Education (Hogeschool), teachers for higher secondary education were trained at universities and for teachers in practical technical and vocational training or for students with a master's degree (licentiaat) from fields with no specific academic teacher education a training was offered in the Centers for Adult Education (Centra voor Volwassenenonderwijs).The decree clearly aims at integrating and coordinating these different models (and their institutional context). This organisational and structural issue (which of course also has a financial and a "market" dimension), however, inevitably got caught up in more educational debates and arguments, with which every institutional model tried to account for and justify its existence. Apart from the immediate structural interests (surviving as an organisation), these debates thus reflect different educational perspectives on what it means to be a teacher and on the process of becoming a teacher.This observation brings us to the second order analysis looking at the concept of teacher professionalism that is being constituted/reflected. At stake is a broad concept of professionalism, taking into account teachers' new responsibilities within the classroom and towards pupils, within the school organisation, and towards parents and towards their own professional development. A legally prescribed professional profile lists these responsibilities in terms of competencies. Accordingly, the curriculum for teacher education programmes is less derived from academic considerations, and to a larger extent based on requirements of the actual working context. This shift is mirrored in the decree's increased concern for internship and mentorship.In the final analysis, the new concept of teachers' professionalism is related to general tendencies in Flemish society. We focus on the increased standardization and instrumentalisation of the teaching profession (and the new role of national governments), the new accountability web teachers' are put into, the ideology of lifelong learning and permanent professional development, and the changed role of academic expertise on teaching and teacher education. Additionally, we will link the conclusions from this particular case-study to the international developments and discussions on teacher education (see for example Furlong, 2005; Cochran-Smith, 2005).Ball, J. S. (1994). 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