In this paper the authors focus on one early-career teacher, co-author Natalie Gibson, whose initial teaching experiences were mediated by educational settings shaped by these different and often conflicting traditions. Their study of Natalie's early-career trajectory is concerned with understanding her effort to develop a conception of student-centered teaching, to which she was oriented during her university education, and to practice it in school settings that suggested or imposed authoritarian conceptions of teaching and learning. Furthermore, in seeking to understand Natalie's experiences, the authors investigate the following question: How did the chief settings of her learning to teach--her university program, her student teaching experience, and the site of her first job--mediate her development of the concept of student-centered teaching? Though the authors focus on only one teacher in this study, their hope is that by considering this question they may come to a better understanding of how teachers like Natalie are affected by particular kinds of settings as they develop knowledge about teaching.