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With the objective of studying the role of pre-service teacher education and of professional practice in the current identity of Portuguese primary teachers, the results of the analysis of 40 biographical interviews with teachers trained at 4 different periods over the last 30 years are presented and discussed. The results indicate not only that a different basic professional identity corresponds to each period, but that as professional career paths evolve, the identities become increasingly similar and, in general, less demanding. By showing the role that the working environment plays in the shaping of these less demanding identities, our results call attention to the importance of investing in the improvement of the quality of such environments.