Since 1978 The Northern College, Barnsley has provided an education focused on the transformation and empowerment of individuals and communities. The demands of an instrumentalist system bite deep and even the most authentic mission might struggle to hold firm against a neo-liberal onslaught which privileges the qualification of economically productive "units" over the education of questioning, thinking humans. This case study of The Northern College's "TeachNorthern" teacher education programme, which layers a digitally blended, social purpose curriculum over conventional initial teacher training qualifications, suggests that a pedagogy focused on developing self-agency has the potential for social change; but that the act of curriculum subversion has limits.