This article focuses on one preschool teacher student, Wilma, in order to investigate how her identity development is shaped through experiences in preschool teacher education and other relevant social practices. Drawing on the concepts of social practice and figured worlds, the article examines the complexity of becoming a preschool teacher. The empirical material consists of an interview with Wilma, analysed through Systemic Functional Linguistics and the conceptual framework Patterns of Participation. The analysis shows that Wilma is highly motivated to become a preschool teacher, while increasingly less motivated to participate in the teaching activities offered within her education. The article problematises how Wilma’s patterns of participation shape her developing professional identity and shows how she moves from trusting the preschool teacher education programme to questioning it. In this process, fellow students and teacher educators play important roles. The article also shows how dissonance arises as Wilma navigates university-based and preschool-based understandings of preschool as a social practice. Implications for preschool teacher education are discussed.