It is unclear to what extent Australian teachers over recent years have resisted the impact of globalisation, marketisation and commodification on education generally and their daily work in classrooms specifically. Do teachers still see education as a public good, of personal and democratic importance in its own right regardless of the socio-economic background of students, or is education a critical component of material gain and individual, competitive advancement? Have teachers confronted these issues in reference to their own professional identities, in developing a strong relationship with their own knowledges as the essence of their educative role with young people? This paper suggests that such matters are still being played out in Australia, although the apparent weakness of the relationship that teachers have with their personal professional knowledge has contributed to an increasing commodification of education, especially in regards the Year 12 certificate. It is proposed that reconstructing initial teacher education on the basis of systematic narrative inquiry might collectively refocus the practice of teacher educators and preservice teachers so that a community indeed moral imperative to learning is established. The discussion outlines connections between professional identity and narrative research and questions of credible and authentic learning for teacher education.