The need to enhance the relevance and quality of pre- and in-service teacher education in India has long been recognised in official commentaries. Despite the structural innovation of District Institutes of Education and Training to enhance systemic responsiveness to local contexts, training messages mediated through DIETs are largely not having the expected impact on classroom processes. Using qualitative data generated from six case study sites, this paper examines in-service training in DIETs and how they have responded to teacher development challenges. It finds that formal teacher education continues to have low "ecological validity", and highlights tensions in the recruitment and technical expertise of DIET staff, and in their attitudes towards elementary teachers, that constrain engagement with local contexts. The paper then considers several aspects of elementary teachers' local knowledge which underline the need for a review of the dominant "skills and knowledge" approach to teacher development pursued by DIETs. It argues that training must shift its focus from skills to an engagement with the pressing question of teachers' will to adopt training messages in current contexts. The paper closes with discussions of how teachers' professional agency can be promoted, and further considerations of how teacher education can be strengthened in pursuit of quality in a context of decentralisation.