The article questions why experienced MEd students, on a course in pedagogy in social justice education, resorted to actions that clashed with this approach. Drawing on student and staff accounts of the course, the authors, teachers on this course, pose questions as to whether these reactions resulted from increased safety in the class, from issues of authority, or from the transition students are making from learning about oppression to having to promote justice through their pedagogy. The article, which works from a framework of critical pedagogy, argues against a view that increased safety leads to more explicit expression of oppressive attitudes. Drawing on critical and feminist theorists, it recognises the need for greater reflexivity on issues of power and authority. The authors question a sharp dichotomy made in South African writing between oppression and liberation, and argue for an approach to social justice education that sees this work as inducting educators into what Gee (1990) terms a new Discourse. Such a Discourse, including social practice, is not assumed to be complete. Given the nature of the society, the transition into such a discourse is both essential and difficult. This view has implications for all education that claims to be based on values of social justice and inclusion, as is the intention of South African educational policy.