A critical pedagogy stance involving reflexivity and critique of Aotearoa New Zealand's history curriculum informed a participatory action research methodology of "problematised history pedagogy" (PHP). Conceptualised as layered and reciprocal, the PHP was nested as a 'case' of action research at the heart of narrative inquiry. The PHP was situated in a year's curriculum course in secondary teacher education, and activated participants' phenomenological empathy, genealogical disclosure, and discursive self-fashioning. This involved life-storying, critical discourse analysis of history texts, and PHP interventions with students in history classrooms. A "dismantling analysis" deconstructed participants' historical thinking and revealed something of their discursive production. Recognition of pedagogic identities, embodiment, and the seeking of authentic selves played out through the critical project. As a professionally challenging process, the PHP depended on mutual goodwill and careful reading of participants' readiness, attitudes, and unique capabilities. The research was also dependent on the professional expertise of colleagues in schools. My interpretive authority as a researcher involved multiple selves as teacher, advocate, and writer. The provoking of more critical approaches in what we do and why in history pedagogy, and the enhancing of practitioner capabilities, supports the PHP as a useful research methodology in initial teacher education.