This article arises from a broader study that investigates mathematics teacher learning in relation to teachers' participation in a two-year In-Service Education and Training (INSET) programme, structured to enhance participation in a community of practice, in the context of current South African curriculum change. The broader study focused on explaining the learning mechanisms by which teachers become professional, competent mathematics teachers (able to tackle curriculum change) through participation in an INSET community of practice that overlaps with a wide range of other professionally associated communities (such as school communities and professional associations). By means of rich and textured vignettes and quotations, the study illustrated that in-service teacher learning involves the complex intersection of various components of learning identified by Wenger (1998), namely: meaning, practice, identity and community. However, the study revealed a fifth important component of learning, one not considered by Wenger, namely that of confidence. In this article, the author provides a vignette of Ivan (one of the fourteen teachers who participated in the two-year in-service programme) In it, the author has used Wenger's four categories of learning (meaning, practice, identity and community) to structure and to organise the data gathered in relation to Ivan's learning to become a professional, confident mathematics educator. Through the vignette of Ivan, the reader can see the importance of confidence as a possible fifth component of learning.