In the research project, The construction of the professional identity of pre-school teachers during initial training and the first years at work (MICINN-EDU2010-20852-C02-02), we discuss the conflicts and dilemmas that pre-school student teachers and novice pre-school teachers experience in order to conciliate the pressure to conform, to become a full member of their corresponding Community of Practice (COP) (Wenger 1998), and their desire to implement new educational ideas or approaches. Through narrative research we have observed the pressure to conform. They look at the more experienced teachers to see how they behave or they are explicitly denied the right to try alternative approaches. In this presentation we address the question of whether novice teachers, in contrast to student teachers, as Woodgate-Jones (2012) seems to suggest, keep feeling the pressure to conform or if it lessens with time and they can thus become more prone to implement their own ideas. We propose that novice teachers are the key for innovation and can alter their COP in substantial ways. In addition, we highlight the performative role of the researchers in raising awareness toward beginner teachers’ ideas, approaches and practices, and in setting the path towards change.