In language teacher education literature, attention is predominantly centered on the content of teacher learning and cognition. The process of teacher learning and cognitive change over time remains relatively underexplored. For instance, despite its importance in career trajectory, there is limited empirical evidence on the transition process from English language teacher education programmes to the early years of teaching. Existing studies suggest that novice teachers experience a lack of preparedness to teach after completion of the teacher education programmes and encounter many challenges in implementing what they were taught at teacher education programmes. This article presents the preliminary findings on five case studies exploring teacher learning through participation in school communities in the context of teaching English as a foreign language. The student teachers were interviewed before and during the practicum which was a part of their pre-service teacher education programme, and they were followed up with further interviews in the initial years of teaching. The findings showed that in a context where the school practices conflicted with the teacher's educational ideals, student teacher participation in the school community fostered adaptation towards conventional language teaching practices at schools. The study has implications for research and practice in language teacher education.