This research article explores the tensions and turning points experienced by two English teachers from the onset of their careers to their enrollment in a Master’s Degree program in Applied Linguistics For Teaching English. As researchers, we assume that the process of becoming an English teacher is social and co-constructed over time. Within this co-construction, the English teachers underwent moments of tension through which they had to make goal-oriented decisions related to their profession. Theoretical constructs suggest that identity construction is a dynamic and fluctuating process, with teachers continuously using their agency and investing in constituting their identities. The methodology employed written autobiographical narratives and narrative interviews for data collection. The analysis of these narratives revealed a sequence of critical moments that significantly influenced the formation of the participants’ identities, highlighting the role of agency in navigating emerging tensions. Findings indicate that teacher identity construction is influenced by the destabilizing nature of teacher education programs and the inherent tensions within these programs and teachers’ broader professional journeys. The study concludes by emphasizing the need for teacher education programs in Colombia to support teachers’ identity construction, enabling them to integrate and reflect their evolving self-conceptions in their pedagogical discourses and practices. The pedagogical implications rely on how teacher education programs in Colombia understand and support the construction of teacher identity and how teachers embody and reflect their new understanding of themselves in their pedagogical discourses and praxis.