The paper explores the development and facilitation of a new initial teacher education (ITE) programme underpinned by critical perspectives. It looks at the past and existing influences that have shaped the ways schooling is understood and operationalised in Aotearoa New Zealand. Through an 11-month ethnographic case study approach, the paper discusses an investigation of how a cohort of teacher educators attempt to highlight and deconstruct inequities underlying contemporary educational practices to student teachers. The purpose is to prepare emergent teachers who will be socially conscious of the purposes of education and to reconceptualise teaching with the learning outcomes of classroom students at the centre of education.