This qualitative study explored how two early-career teacher educators analysed and challenged pedagogical approaches within their curriculum methods courses via the collaborative self-study methodology. Our critical friendship revealed similar problems of enactment and tensions in our pedagogies of teacher education, despite the differences in both the curriculum methods course content area and division focus (i.e. elementary and secondary education). The self-study also provided a structured opportunity to reflect critically upon the unique pedagogical issues embedded within pre-service teacher education programmes. Our central conclusion is that, as new teacher educators, we struggle to overcome the same problem of enactment as the teacher candidates we teach.