Several recent studies indicate that the transition from schoolteacher to teacher educator is fraught with difficulty, and that the new professional identity is hard-won (for example Murray & Male, 2005; Boyd et al., 2006; McKeon & Harrison, 2010; Boyd & Harris, 2010). The research presented in this paper builds on a previous study (Field, forthcoming), which identified one of the central tensions inherent in this transition as pedagogy; an area where the teacher educator is deemed as expert, notwithstanding the different demands of teaching about teaching (Loughran, 2006). This positions the new teacher educator as the expert become novice, and has the potential to challenge the substantial self (Murray, 2006). This paper focuses on the impact of teacher educators’ former professional identity on their pedagogical practice. The study comprises semi-structured interviews, videoed observation, and stimulated recall interviews (after Swennen et al., 2008) with teacher educators from three universities in England. In this way, insights are gained into how, and to what extent, teacher educators build upon their identity as teachers in developing a new professional identity within higher education.