National and international developments in higher education and the resultant pressure on universities to demonstrate excellence, including excellence in research, had a far-reaching effect on faculties of education who had traditionally focused more on excellence in teaching than on research. In South Africa, as part of transformation policies after 1994, the South African government made a deliberate effort to restructure the higher education landscape, resulting in a number of enforced mergers between universities and teacher education colleges. These complex contextual issues had a profound effect on research development in education faculties. This paper focuses on a transformative approach to research development initiatives in a South African faculty of education over a period of three to four years. (Contains 3 tables.)