In this article some preliminary data from an ongoing exploration of student teachers' development of professional identities are explored. This project uses hermeneutic techniques to develop a set of categories which characterise students' articulation of their understanding. This is related to the Aristotelian categories of "praxis", "poiesis", "phronesis" and "techne", as interlinked components of professional activity, understanding and discourse. Secondly, consideration is given to the development of students' professional identities as early years specialists through the ways in which they are, collectively and individually, constructing professional identities. I discuss the relationship of these to the core themes of the course on which they are enrolled: those of identity, culture and pedagogy. (Contains 4 tables.)