A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF EDUCATION IN FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF EDUCATION IN THE DEPARTMENT OF FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND, 2008. / The research examines the Perceptions and Practices of learner rights in the South African Black Schools. This study made use of Primary sources, Secondary sources and interviews to ascertain the perceptions and Practices of learner rights in South African Black schools. In this study we first embark on a retrospective probe into discourses of difference between educators and learners and argue that these discourses of difference tend to promote oppressive and dehumanizing social relationship between learners and educators. We further argue that the discourses of difference and power tend to naturalize and normalize Otherness as though it is naturally given rather than conceiving of it as socially constructed. The study thus highlights that the issue of learner rights in schools that is predicated on differential power relations between learners and educators can be resolved if co-operation between learners and educators could be forged.