This study examines the interaction between indigenous culture and modern religious practices of teaching and learning, and how this contributes towards shaping the preconceptions of teaching, learning, a teacher's role(s), students as learners, and knowledge of three secondary school pre-service teachers who were just commencing their teacher education program at the only university educating teachers for post-primary and post-vocational educational institutions in Papua New Guinea. Data were obtained through a semi-structured interview questionnaire. Data analysis revealed a dialectical and a mutually constitutive relationship between cultural and religious practices of teaching and learning. This made a significant contribution towards the construction of the three secondary school pre-service teachers' preconceptions. These practices defined and fashioned the perceptions of teaching and learning the three pre-service teachers held prior to becoming students of teaching.