This paper examines the concepts of discourse community and writing apprenticeship in the context of undergraduate education students' writing. Drawing on an integrated research methodology using marker feedback on student assignments and interview data, the paper addresses to what extent the concepts of discourse community and apprenticeship can be applied to the disciplinary context of teacher education. The findings suggest that tertiary literacy practitioners need to be critical in adopting these concepts to specific disciplinary contexts, but also that the concepts of discourse community and apprenticeship provide rich contextual frameworks for investigating the social practices that shape students' writing. Furthermore, this paper provides a detailed methodological framework for exploring the extent to which marker feedback attempts to socialise students' writing to the discursive practices of the discipline. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)