Global Education Inequities: A Comparative Study of the United States and South Africa

Access to quality education for all children is a common mantra for countless national and world organizations, such as the UN and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper examines the struggle within two nations who continue to move beyond the impact of racial segregation in the United States (US) and "apartheid" in South Africa (SA) to achieve equitable access to quality education for all children, regardless of race, ethnicity, language, or socio-economic status (SES). The paper begins with an overview of the historical paths both nations followed in their slow evolution away from harsh segregation and "apartheid" governance designed to provide unequal educational opportunities for its youth. Beyond these historical sketches is a brief review of theoretical perspectives to help explain how unequal systems of education are maintained and how they can be transformed into agents of positive social change. This is followed by an examination of factors in both the US and SA that are capable of sustaining unequitable access to quality education while providing disproportional levels of negativity such as suspensions or dropping out (or being "pushed out") of school based on a child's race, gender, ethnicity or SES. The paper concludes by asking (at least in the US case), whether the "way forward" may be guided by examples of the past, such as the quality of education provided to Black children in the era of legally segregated Black schools in America's South. [For the complete Volume 19 proceedings, see ED613922.]