The terms “Global North” and “Global South” are used to categorise countries based on economic and political resources throughout academic literature. The term Global North refers broadly to countries in Europe, North America, Australia and select parts of Asia (Dados & Connell, 2012). Global North countries traditionally have higher gross domestic product, and as it relates to education, higher test scores. For simplicity, they are considered the “have” countries. Conversely, Global South denotes countries in South America, Africa, and most of Asia. These are considered the “have not” countries. Despite pre-existing notions, there are many lessons that the Global North can learn from the Global South related to education.

Interestingly, countries such as China and Macau are categorised among the Global South (Véron, 2023). Yet, as it relates to education, these countries rank at the top of the most recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results (Schleicher, 2018). China had the best PISA test scores and Macao finished third among the 77 participating countries around the globe. PISA results, like any standardised test (ie. PIRLS, SAT, ACT) are a singular data point. Which should not be the catalyst for complete education reform (Brehm, 2016; Campbell et al., 1996). The 2018 PISA results indicate that the Global North can learn some lessons from China and Macau related to teacher training, test preparation, and policy proliferation.

In my experience, teaching at the International Community School (ICS) in Thailand from 2016 – 2019. ICS had great leadership that understood that focused professional development has direct correlations to increased student achievement. I had the opportunity to network with well-resourced international schools in Thailand and Southeast Asia, which were on the cutting edge of best practice in education. Organisations such as the East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS) are key to such professional development among international schools in Global South countries such as China, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia (East Asia Regional Council of Schools, 2023). Numerous education coalitions and organisations in the Global North could learn from the strengths of EARCOS related to connecting schools, seeking best practice in education, and collectively raising the bar. Furthermore, perhaps the most valuable tenet that the Global North can learn from EARCOS is cultural responsiveness. If more of the Global North encouraged cultural shifts in their education systems, they could experience inclusive diversification in their curriculum and instructional methods which could reach their citizens on a deeper level (Rincón-Gallardo, 2020; Farrell et al., 2017). 

References

Brehm, W. (Executive producer). (2016). Seeing like PISA (44) [Audio podcast]. In FreshEd. FreshEd, Inc. https://freshedpodcast.com/radhikagorur/

Campbell, L., Campbell, B., & Dickinson, D. (1996). Teaching & Learning through Multiple Intelligences. Simon and Schuster Education Group. 

Dados, N., & Connell, R. (2012). The global south. Contexts, 11(1), 12-13. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1536504212436479

East Asia Regional Council of Schools. (2023). Who we are. East Asia Regional Council of Schools. https://www.earcos.org/who_we_are.php

Farrell, J., Manion, C., & Rincón-Gallardo, S. (2017). Reinventing schooling: Successful radical alternatives from the global south. Comparative and international education, 59-87.

Rincón-Gallardo, S. (2020). Educational change as social movement: An emerging paradigm from the global south. Journal of Educational Change, 21(3), 467-477.

Schleicher, A. (2018). PISA 2018 Insights and Interpretations. OECD. https://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA%202018%20Insights%20and%20Interpretations%20FINAL%20PDF.pdf

Véron, N. (2023, March 8). Much of the global south is on Ukraine’s side. Peterson Institute for International Economics.https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/much-global-south-ukraines-side#:~:text=Under%20that%20definition%2C%20both%20Russia,this%20GDP%20per%20capita%20criterion.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. It was a pleasure spending time with you today.

Peace & Blessings, 

– Josiah