Background This article probes teacher responses to three curricular reform initiatives from a South African situated contextual perspective. It focuses on Life Sciences teachers who have initially reported feeling overwhelmed by this rapidly changing curriculum environment: adopting and re-adapting to the many expected shifts. The research question posed is: How do teachers negotiate and reinterpret their professional roles and responsibilities in the continually changing environment? Material and methods A qualitative research design engaged dialogically with 8 Life Science teachers from moderately -resourced schools located North of Durban generating insights that were central to their shifting agency of their teacher professional development (TPD). Results Our findings show these LS teachers are resilient to the changing curriculum times; their collegiality and agentic actions allows for divisions of labour, sustainable ties and strategies for walking the talk. Conclusions The key features needed for the initiation of an informal professional learning community such as collegiality, shared value and vision for teaching and learning are revealed.