This special issue of the BERA Blog is the result of a collaboration between Antonia Voigt and Deepti R Bhat, two doctoral researchers at the School of Education, University of Bristol. Although we work in rather different areas, we share a vision and deep passion for creating platforms for dialogue within and beyond the field of education. The celebration of the sixth International Day of Education on 24 January 2024 inspired us to bring together researchers and practitioners, who work on issues of quality, equality, equity and justice in education systems in the Global South. In our definition, Global South encompasses countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and Oceania. These countries tend to be, relatively to other countries in the world, less economically affluent. In contrast, countries in the Global North are usually financially wealthier. However, looking beyond this predominately economic differentiation, we need to keep in mind that these disparities exist within a broader context of global social inequalities and power imbalances (Martins, 2020). Within this world of asymmetric opportunities, this special issue reminds us that country-specific education systems are impacted by local inequalities as well.

The global education agenda is captured in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). This goal aims to promote ‘inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities’. The core principle of the SDGs is to bring the Global South and Global North closer together in equal partnerships to build a healthier future for humanity and the planet. Through working with change agents from and in North and Latin America, Europe, East Africa, South Asia, East Asia and Australia, our special issue highlights just some of the challenges that we face particularly in education. We asked our contributors to reflect on an educational topic in the Global South that is close to their hearts and that requires urgent attention if we want to reach the goal of quality education for all.

‘We asked our contributors to reflect on an educational topic in the Global South that is close to their hearts and that requires urgent attention if we want to reach the goal of quality education for all.’

This special issue illustrates local challenges in relation to social inequality, pedagogy and decolonisation. In the first post Chunhua Huang focuses on how multi-dimensional challenges reinforce social inequalities and explores how the expansion of private international schools in China has ripple effects and deepens social injustices. The next two blog posts zoom into pedagogical issues in the classroom. Joshua Andilile Mwaipape highlights that linguistic injustices in Tanzanian classrooms prevent students from being able to engage fully in the learning experience. In addition to the medium of instruction, the content of curricula requires attention. Using the context of teaching historical conflict in Peru, Paola Sarmiento discusses that pedagogical approaches are important for students to engage more actively with their past. Our special issue concludes with Deepti R Bhat’s blog post, which draws on her research with an indigenous community in India to re-examine SDG 4 through the lens of decolonisation.

In conclusion, we would like to thank our authors for their contributions, and we each would like to share our personal reflections as editors of this BERA Blog special issue. For Deepti, co-editing these blog posts has provided an opportunity to reflect on the significant role of individual authors’ experiences in shaping their research. Their passion for educational matters adds to the narrative of their posts. They draw on their careers as educators or their own experiences as pupils, which brings authenticity to the educational challenges they highlight.

For Antonia, her time as a research assistant on a project that studied access to secondary education in four countries in the Asia Pacific region has made her aware of disjunctions between educational frameworks that are shaped globally and the local circumstances of pupils’ access to school. The authors in this special issue have demonstrated how educational challenges are tied to specific contexts and situations. Both the global education agenda of SDG 4 and local knowledge and research are needed to shape our common future. The question for Antonia is how we can bring these two sides together in a more productive dialogue.

Reference

Martins, A. (2020). Reimagining equity: Redressing power imbalances between the global North and the global South. Gender & Development, 28(1), 135–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2020.1717172