Abstract Teaching quality is regarded as a vital component in educational reform efforts in many countries, however there is little contextualised understanding of what it means, particularly from the perspectives of teachers. This study involved 18 focus group discussions with five stakeholder groups. Findings highlight that each group associated a number of different factors with teaching quality. Additionally, some factors emerged more strongly than others, indicating that perceptions can differ in the extent of their perceived importance and be influenced by an individual’s role and experience. Findings showed that perceptions of teaching quality can be highly contextualised, as noted through the emergence of the theme of Teacher Disposition. These findings have implications for the training and development of Rwandan secondary teachers.