The Educational Doctorate (EdD) at the University of Wolverhampton offers educational practitioners the opportunity to design a research enquiry based in, on or around their professional work. The cohort, reported on here, embarked upon their EdD studies during the 2007/08 academic year. This study reports on seven participants' learning experiences. It was anticipated that for these teacher educators, reflecting on others' studies and engaging with developing their own particular enquiries on, with or through their practice has significantly impacted upon their understandings of the research process and supported development of their research identities. Transformative personal and professional learning was evidenced by the Enquiry Design module outcomes. Dilemmas relating to the professional identity of the participants arising through reflection on existing perceptions of practice and pedagogy, evolving knowledge, understanding and constructs of research and associated ethical issues were anticipated and supported by social constructivist processes. The findings of the study indicate how a social constructivist approach to teaching research design can support teacher enquiries focused on a range of issues including developing the nature of reflectivity, enhancing professional learning, emancipating practice, enhancing constructive collaborative discussions, improving problem-solving pedagogy, making judgements about effectiveness of training and supporting affective accreditation. This article provides an ethnographic insight to the nature of these teacher educators' research-led learning journeys. Applying interpretative lenses to reflective narratives, including the use of visual metaphors, illuminates the meanings made of and through research endeavours, whilst also revealing the development of researcher identity. Analysis of the metaphors and other textual artefacts uncovered aspects of, and progress in, personal and professional learning related to research. The article argues that shared meaning-making processes supported teacher educators whilst endeavouring to achieve parallel research goals when embarking on a research learning journey. Development of beliefs about research and researcher identity were transactional rather than transmissional, subjectively complex and dynamic rather than technical, and paid much more attention to the process rather than the 'end product'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]