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This study focuses on upper primary prospective teachers in their first years of a teacher education programme in Sweden, in particular, a 20-week mathematics education course. It aims to contribute with insight into how, or even if, experience from a teacher education programme and other relevant past and present social practices and figured worlds plays a role in prospective generalist teachers’ imaginings of themselves as primary mathematics teachers-to-be and potentially shapes their identity. The theoretical perspective, Patterns of Participation, guides the logic and the research process and is used to interpret the construct of professional identity development. Ethnographic methods were crucial during the research process, which starts by taking a wide perspective on relevant social practices and then focuses exclusively on the everyday lives of prospective teachers. This study adds to the understanding of how the similarities in the discursive patterns of two prospective teachers, Evie and Lisa, frame their processes as teachers-to-be by staying committed to their prior positive experiences of mathematics. The figured world of performative mathematics is a significant aspect of Evie’s and Lisa’s experience, which involves being recognised for mathematical ability. Evie’s identity development is framed in relation to how her degree of certainty changes during her teacher education experience. She became recognised as someone who helps others in mathematics and found a way of performing this role during the teacher education programme. Lisa’s identity development is framed in relation to her commitment to the figured world of performative mathematics. She became recognised as a winner of competitions and for quickly completing the textbook exercises – experiences that proved formative during her teacher education programme. In this study, I conclude that the teacher education programme has an impact regarding prospective teachers’ professional development, but perhaps not in the way teacher educators expect or want. Thus, the teacher educators’ intention for the education programme differs from the result. An important aspect is that prospective teachers are not challenged first and foremost by encountering the theoretical perspectives involved in teaching mathematics. Instead, their prior experience is confirmed when used as a key source in determining what teaching mathematics means in terms of identity.

International audience; The empirical material in this paper is from a multiple case study exploring the role, if any, that social practices related to teacher education and beyond teacher education play in primary student teachers’ tales of themselves as teachers-to-be. The case of Lisa is used as an example to illustrates how different past and present social practices influence how she talks about competitive teaching during different phases of her teacher education. Of particular influence is her past school-related experiences as they in turn influence how she interprets other social practices. Thus, the case of Lisa illustrates the importance of widening our research interest beyond teacher education if we want to understand the process of becoming mathematics teachers.

International audience; This study highlights the role, if any, that teacher education programmes and experiences from other practices play in influencing generalist student teachers' tales of themselves as emergent primary mathematics teachers. The conceptual framework Patterns of Participation, PoP, is used when theorising and interpreting student teachers' becoming, and analysing the processual and dynamic character of immediate social interaction related to practice on a macro level. Therefore, this paper evaluates whether Systemic Functional Linguistics, SFL, can be a methodological tool used on the micro level. This paper shows that SFL structures the data in a way that makes interpretations through PoP possible.