This paper profiles the experiences of seven teacher educators who engaged in a 9-month collaborative self-study focused on exploring the text "Developing a Pedagogy of Teacher Education: Understanding, Teaching and Learning about Teaching" (Loughran, 2006). In this paper we illustrate how we developed shared understandings of our dilemmas as teacher educators and enhanced collaboration as we engaged in reflective discussion focused on relating the text to our practices. Analysis of our experiences documented the applicability of the framework of tensions (Berry, 2008) as a lens to understand the dilemmas we all negotiated as teacher educators. We extend these understandings by detailing how we encountered these same tensions as researchers within our collaborative self-study learning community and how shared understandings of our tensions developed through this self-study, enabled us to later develop a common language to engage in collegial discourse. Implications include the recommendation of faculty development through collaborative self-study and the development of collaborative research protocols upon the formation of such groups.