[Editor's Letter]: This 14th edition of Study South Africa foregrounds the celebration of 20 years of a democratic South Africa. Patrick Fish was commissioned to write a series of articles reflecting the development of South African Higher Education since 1994 for this edition. Reading through this the reader will hopefully experience a sense of the transformation of the South African Higher Education system. Although we all agree in South Africa that we are not done yet, we also recognise that given the South African realities, the change from a race based and fragmented system of higher education to a single but diverse system is well under way. The South African Universities transformed from mostly mono cultural to multicultural institutions that largely reflects the composition of the South African population. The University campuses also demonstrate the institutional appetite to be international. Not only do they jointly house more than 50,000 international students but are also involved in numerous ways in bringing the benefits of being globally connected to the local communities. We are one of the few higher education systems that largely fund our international activities from institutional budgets. This is one of the main reasons that South African Universities practice a style of internationalisation that is relevant to our institutional needs, as well as the local and national needs. Through our internationalisation endeavours we have connected with the rest of Africa in a very special way. Not only do we educate large numbers of students from other African countries but through the South African Higher Education alumni that now live all over the African continent we have built permanent connections that will enhance and develop long standing relationships. IEASA celebrates with all South Africans 20 years of democracy and realise that it is indeed a privilege to be practitioners in transformed ‘knowledge cities’. We are, however, saddened by the incidents of intolerance and destruction in other parts of the world that make the work of higher education institutions impossible, and can only in solidarity with those scholars at risk celebrate with deep appreciation the efforts and determination of those South Africans that made it possible for us to be Universities in a free and democratic society.

The aim of this thesis is to introduce the theme of globalization and global issues as a topic of school education. There will be a didactic analysis of this topic in relation with the content of Civil and Social Sciences and the cross-curricular theme Education for Thinking in the European and Global Context at secondary grammar school. The theoretical part briefly defines globalization and explains the necessary sociological terms, such as global poverty, global unemployment and consumerism. There is also a chapter on global education in schools and on researches on understanding of globalization. The practical part explains the methodology of qualitative research and the method of in-depth interview of the semi-structured type serving as the basis of this work. Then, it presents the results of the research conducted on students' understanding realized with the secondary grammar school students. Finally, it gives recommendations for school education based on these results. KEY WORDS: globalization, global development education, global competence, constructivism, students' understanding, qualitative research, in-depth semi-structured interview