Continued concern over attainment and participation in secondary school mathematics has led to a focus on improving the quality of teaching and student outcomes through a variety of professional learning opportunities. A study of teacher professional identity serves to illuminate this learning; this constant process of sensemaking (Day and Kington 2008) is illustrated in the narratives of mathematics teachers (e.g. Williams 2011). Such engagement with identity work is an important component of teacher professional learning and a potentially powerful political tool (Mockler 2011). As yet, little research has been undertaken which focuses on teachers' experiences of professional learning throughout their careers. This study adopts a life history approach (Goodson and Sikes 2001) to explore women mathematics teachers' experiences of professional learning, examining what participants see as significant in their professional learning, and how this learning assists them in developing an epistemology of mathematics education. This initial report focuses on the teachers' own experiences as mathematics students, elicited in order to begin to explore their developing mathematical identity and situate their professional learning stories. The study focuses on four women, each with at least ten years teaching experience. Data were collected through two semi-structured "interview-conversations" (Goodson and Sikes 2001, 27) with each teacher which were audio-recorded, transcribed and shared with participants. Two themes emerge from the early stages of data analysis: teachers as role models; and challenging expectations. Teachers' reminiscences of mathematics learning emphasise the role of their secondary school teachers as reference points in their own shifting identities.