The present paper highlights how different types of learning opportunities are available in school subject departments for student teachers even when they are working in the same school and within the same PGCE partnership scheme. This article derives from a year-long doctoral ethnographic study exploring initial teacher education (ITE) work with 15 student teachers in four subject departments (geography, history, modern foreign languages (MFL) and science) in one secondary school (for 11- to 18-year-old pupils) in the south of England. The discussion concentrates on three different types of learning were identified in relation to ITE in the subject departments: Learning by imitation, Learning by enculturation and Learning by innovation.