In this study, the use of critical incident reflective writing as a means to engage pre-service secondary mathematics teachers in adaptive metacognitive practices is discussed. This basic interpretive qualitative study uses a sample of 5 incident reports from each of 37 students whose final papers were previously analyzed (for possible total of 185 incident reports). The qualitative data analysis software N-Vivo was used to code each incident using a broad initial set of codes which present evidence of teachers’ personal practical theories (PPTs), a vision of teaching that they would like to see enacted in their classroom, a sense of belonging to their teaching community, their personal identity as a teacher. Findings indicated that pre-service teachers have little sense of belonging or identity as a teacher, two issues that need to be addressed in the student-teaching experience and into the first years of teaching.