The article tracks key moments in teacher education policy and curriculum in South Africa from the 1970s to the present day. Political and social features of education in each decade are outlined, from a racialised and fragmented system of teacher education, to the imagining of alternatives, and the imperative for educational transformation. The article pays special attention to the role of teacher education in a national agenda of social reconstruction within the goals of the 1996 Constitution of South Africa, to establish a post-apartheid society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights. Drawing on a conception of teaching as organising systematic learning, we track ways in which changes in teacher education policy have enabled or restricted opportunities for systematic learning for students in different social contexts, and towards advancing equity. We argue that insights from strong theoretical frameworks create conditions of possibility for student teachers to analyse and interrogate their observations and experiences within the existing schooling system. In so doing, they potentially become agents of transformation, as they imagine practical possibilities for improving teaching in and beyond their immediate school and contextual realities. At the same time, we note the limitation of too narrow a focus on systematised knowledge, without sufficient attention to the life histories and aspirations of student teachers themselves. We suggest that a crucial way forward is to consider how personal development, teacher knowledges and classroom experiences and interactions work symbiotically to support student teachers' pedagogic learning, even against the enduring challenges of severe inequalities in South Africa. This requires attention to how knowledge informs teaching, how curricula can support the process of learning to teach, and how systematic learning can be nurtured in the pursuit of social transformation.