Teacher education in Canada is a contested discipline with long standing national and international debates about what teachers need to know and be able to do. But teacher education programmes are also influenced by the social, political, and economic context in which the programmes developed, so it is reasonable to suppose that debates about teacher education programming are connected to local issues and concerns of the community. Given the supposition that teacher education programming is shaped, at least in part, by the tensions and contentions arising in particular localities, this study provides historical insight into the relationship between a local community and a teacher education program by examining connections between the Saskatoon Normal School teacher education program and the community of Saskatoon in the years of 1930-1950.