Impacts of teacher development programmes on participants’ development are often measured using questionnaires that gauge approaches to teaching and self-efficacy beliefs. While important in gaining a sense of the efficacy of such programmes, they tell only of a development that has occurred in parallel with TDP participation. They do not tell how this development came about. In this study we use time-line interviews to inquire into how TDP participants match their development as teachers with meaningful engagement in other important work-life practices. We find that they do so by constituting the notion of ‘the good teacher’ in an array of qualitatively different ways. Importantly, we find that a teacher can be student focused and feel confident about their ability to facilitate quality student learning, but in a multitude of different ways. These findings have implications for the prioritizing of TDP contents and activities and also suggest new avenues for exploring how quality student learning relates to teacher development.