Counter-Hegemonic Internationalization and the Global South: Epistemological Contributions to Latin American Basic Education

Abstract

This study aims to analyze counter-hegemonic internationalization in Latin American basic education, highlighting its epistemological and political contributions from the Global South. The research sought to understand how recent academic productions (2020–2025) have problematized and proposed critical alternatives to Eurocentric internationalization, identifying trends, gaps, and contributions to the field of education. Methodologically, the study was based on the model for systematizing the state of knowledge proposed by Morosini, Kohld-Santos, and Bittencourt (2021), based on the analysis of theses and dissertations mapped in the Thesis and Dissertation Database (IBICT). Sixty-two publications were identified, of which 16 met the inclusion criteria and were organized into three main categories: (i) epistemological foundations and counter-hegemonic perspectives; (ii) mobility, migration, and interculturality; and (iii) teacher training, critical pedagogical policies, and practices. The theoretical framework dialogues with Epistemologies of the South (Santos, 2007, 2018), the decolonial turn (Mignolo, 2003, 2011; Quijano, 2000), critical interculturality (Walsh, 2013), and Freire's critical pedagogy (1987). The results show that counter-hegemonic internationalization is an emerging field committed to cognitive justice, multilingualism, and solidarity-based cooperation. It is concluded that, when conceived from the Global South, internationalization must go beyond the reproduction of Eurocentric models and assume itself as a political-educational project aimed at transforming relations of power, knowledge, and being, promoting a plural, emancipatory, and socially just education.