This chapter presents foregrounding issues related to national and international policy contexts in which teaching, learning and assessment co-exist. It explores the ways in which teaching, assessment and learning interrelate, as different assessment and curriculum priorities and practices are required or sought. Particular emphasis is given to the ways in which national and international testing requirements influence teaching and learning relationships. The chapter examines the particular discourses related to who teaching is for, what learning success looks like, and what (or who) national education systems serve. Discussions are layered and interwoven since the focus on teaching, learning and assessment also requires understanding issues of who, what, why, when and for what purpose. The more central role of learners, as active participants with their own lives, past, present and future, is a key contribution to discuss about the interfacing of teaching, learning and assessment.