This paper aims to show how its author/researchers were brought to reconsider some of the assumptions behind a small arc project that was being conducted on the professional development of student teachers in Australia. A small group of English Method students were invited to participate in three focus group interviews: before their first teaching round; after their first round; and then after their second (and final) round. Although the composition of the group changed slightly over the year, a smaller number of students, all in the same tutorial group, attended every interview. The intention was to interview some of the supervising teachers with whom the student teachers had worked in the course of the year, but the author/researchers were unable to fully implement this plan. Later in the year, a small focus group discussion on supervision was set up, involving leading members of the Victorian Association for the Teaching of English (VATE), to compare their perspective on supervision with that of the student teachers. This small qualitative study is firmly grounded in the author/educators' work as teacher educators. By focusing on the ways in which they have been obliged to reconceptualize their research, they hope to achieve a critical perspective on their professional practice. The original research proposal is appended. (Contains 12 references.) (NKA)