This essay examines how undergraduate economic geography courses in Anglo-American institutions traditionally frame economic activities in developing regions and asserts that mainstream approaches have devalued the complexity and diversity of economic geographies in the Global South. Focusing on developmentalism as a commonly used heuristic frame, it is argued that teachers and textbooks may provide only a partial representation of economic activities in the developing world and that this can lead to the marginalization of the Global South as a context for economic geography study and research. The essay concludes with ideas about how teachers might subvert these tendencies. (Contains 1 table and 4 notes.)