This study examines pre-service teacher research in a nine-month teacher education programme, implemented as a means of making explicit links between research and practice. The results reveal that although student teachers expressed significant concerns about having to develop a research question, they conferred with and developed questions in conjunction with their associate teachers. However, they also indicated that support from the associate teacher presented a significant challenge. Furthermore, the results reveal that understanding a research disposition to be integral to teaching proved to be a significant conceptual challenge amongst some of the pre-service teachers and associate teachers.