This paper offers reflections on the role of context for teaching development programmes, stimulated by participating in European staff mobility. It is presented in two parts. Part 1 discusses the differences between the national and institutional contexts encountered during a UK-German partnership, as case studies of the varying contexts in which such programmes are situated. The following differences emerged as crucial: whether programmes were compulsory, credit-bearing, formally assessed, and located in a teaching or research-focused institutional environment. Part 2 uses selected publications as exemplars to explore the extremely variable ways in which context features in research on teaching development programmes. With reference to theorisations of context, it is concluded that future research should more explicitly consider the varying contexts of teaching development programmes and investigate a wider range of national and institutional contexts.