Assignment 2 2026
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Due Date: 26 June 2026
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, QUESTION 1
1.1 MEANING OF THE EXPRESSION “GLOBAL NORTH AND GLOBAL SOUTH”
Introduction
The expression “Global North” and “Global South” does not refer only to physical
geography. In the context of education and the history of education, these concepts
are used to describe unequal relations of power, knowledge production, and
historical influence across the world. Seroto, Davids and Wolhuter explain that
scholarly publications in education have largely been dominated by researchers from
the Global North, while the experiences, histories and knowledge systems of the
Global South have often been marginalised or treated as secondary (Seroto, Davids
& Wolhuter, 2020).
The Global North
The Global North generally refers to countries that are historically industrialised,
economically powerful, and influential in global knowledge production. These include
countries in Western Europe and North America. In the extract, countries such as
Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and the
Netherlands are presented as dominant in both authorship and research focus in
education history journals (Seroto, Davids & Wolhuter, 2020). This shows that the
Global North is associated with academic privilege, institutional power, and control
over what is regarded as legitimate knowledge.
The textbook also suggests that the Global North has shaped education research
according to its own priorities and concerns. Themes such as race, ethnicity,
colonialism and social justice have often been framed through events and
experiences from the North, for example the Civil Rights Movement, school
desegregation in the United States, and immigration in the United Kingdom (Seroto,
Davids & Wolhuter, 2020). In this way, the Global North is not only a place but also a
centre of intellectual authority.
The Global South
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, The Global South refers to countries and peoples who have largely experienced
colonialism, imperial domination, economic dependency, and marginalisation in
global systems of power and knowledge. It includes many parts of Africa, Latin
America and Asia. However, the textbook makes it clear that the Global South is
more than a geographical description. It also refers to the suffering, exclusion and
structural inequalities caused by colonialism, capitalism and patriarchy (Seroto,
Davids & Wolhuter, 2020).
In the field of education, the Global South has often been underrepresented in
research authorship and in the histories that are told. The extract points out that only
a very small percentage of indexed education articles were authored by African
scholars, which highlights the unequal distribution of academic voice and authority
(Seroto, Davids & Wolhuter, 2020).
Conclusion
Therefore, the concepts of Global North and Global South describe a global
hierarchy of power and knowledge. The Global North is commonly linked to
dominance, representation and intellectual authority, while the Global South is
associated with historical oppression, silencing and the struggle to reclaim its own
histories and epistemologies. In education, these terms are important because they
help explain why decolonisation is necessary and why the voices of the Global South
must be recentred (Seroto, Davids & Wolhuter, 2020).
1.2 #RHODESMUSTFALL AND #FEESMUSTFALL AS CRITICAL MOMENTS IN
THE DECOLONISATION OF THE HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICAN EDUCATION
Introduction
The #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements were critical moments in the
decolonisation of South African education because they challenged the continued
dominance of colonial symbols, Eurocentric knowledge systems and structural
inequality within universities. These movements did not only protest against
immediate institutional problems, but also forced society to confront the deeper
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