The results presented in this paper derive from a longitudinal case study of seven novice primary school mathematics teachers’ professional identity development. In the study it was found that thisprofessional identity development did not include becoming a mathematics teacher.A primary school teacher in Sweden, like in many other countries, teaches many subjects but, at the same time they are the first teachers to teach mathematics to the school children. In the paper it will be shown how the noviceprimary school teachers’ image of a mathematics teacher preventedthem from developinga sense of themselves asmathematics teachers.