This study focuses on the perceptions of student-teachers towards their engagement in small-scale research projects undertaken whilst on a one-year postgraduate initial teacher education programme. We present an institutional response to national and international policy agendas regarding the place of research within initial teacher education at master's level, focusing on the role of practitioner enquiry in facilitating a critical engagement with practice. The paper concludes that practitioner enquiry offers a potentially powerful and illuminating way of exploring emerging professional identity and asserting agency in beginning teachers. (Contains 1 note.)