The issue of the "best" type of teacher education currently under discussion led us towards a historic-ethnographic study dealing with the teacher education approach of the English Department which existed at Oranim Academic College of Education in the years 1971-2001. Seven teachers and former Heads of Department were interviewed, as well as the college president, and written material was collected from different sources. The data were analysed using the grounded theory approach. The findings show that this teacher education program was unique in that it was built on a balanced integration of the seminar-based and the university-based approaches to teacher education. This allowed the department to place the process of construction of pedagogical content knowledge in the centre, together with the acquisition of discipline-based knowledge. This combination of academic and professional-based approaches within a university framework was proven to be not only possible, but very successful. (Contains 108 footnotes.)