Violence and education in the BRICS countries: A comparative study

Abstract

The main thesis of this book is that, given that South African education faces major challenges, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) constellation of states offers -thus far overlooked -a valuable tertium comparationis, a source of international comparative perspectives, to inform the domestic scholarly discourse on education. Hitherto, the public as well as the scholarly discourse on education issues in South Africa have tended to be inwardlooking. As far as international perspectives were brought in, these have concentrated on models from the Global North (the introduction of Outcomes-Based Education, developed in the Global North, where it had had its trial runs before being brought to South Africa, being an example), or recently from the countries who came out tops in the international Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test series, such as Finland. Both the Global North education systems and those of nations coming out tops in the PISA test series are inappropriate to serve as a comparative yardstick and example for South Africa, for the simple reason of too large contextual differences which these countries have with South Africa, a point explained thoroughly in this book. Up to now South-South comparisons in comparative and international education research have been few and far between, and comparisons between education issues in South Africa and other nations of the Global South have been virtually absent. The BRICS grouping represents a towering bloc of nations within the Global South, which has caught the interest of political leaders in South Africa. This book first investigates the national contexts and development of education in the BRICS countries, arguing that this grouping represents a valuable yet overlooked field for illuminating South African education issues with international perspectives. The book comprises chapters arguing for and illustrating this thesis from a variety of angles. Common to all chapters is that authors used the comparative method in education, that is, comparing the national education system in their education societal context interrelationships of the BRICS countries. The chapters focus on a number of critical issues in South African education, including the issue of the language of learning and teaching, the alignment of the world of education with the world of work, early childhood education and the development of world-class universities. Regarding the last one, for example, China has been the terrain of the most intensive national projects of establishing world-class universities, with Project 985, Project 211 and the 'Double First Class University' project. The chapters demonstrate what South Africa, in approaching her education issues, can learn from the experience of the BRICS countries. Motivating and illustrating the value of intra-BRICS education comparisons for South Africa, the book contains original research. The similarity report of an iThenticate analysis confirms that the work contains no plagiarism. This volume is ...