Ecologia cognitiva da extensão universitária: encontro, diálogo e colaboração

Abstract

The object of this research is the ecology of university extension. It starts from the constitutional principle that guides the functions of the university: the inseparability between teaching, research and extension. It brings the idea of cognitive ecology to conceive the extension as a formative principle that enables interactions between subjects, between institutional mechanisms that direct the actions in the field of university and school and between the functions of the university. Considering the articulation between extension and public policies, and considering that these are very broad, we have defined as central scope the action with the public education system. We start from the hypothesis that inter-institutional actions that are built from a dialogic-collaborative movement between university and school potentialize university extension actions with teaching and research and enable a humanistic theoretical and practical training, which, consequently, expands the reference universe of the students involved. The research is based on the assumption that, with the articulation of institutional policies, it is possible to overcome the eventual and assistential character of the extension actions. With this, a collaborative movement is possible and, thus, pedagogical, social, ethical and environmental issues become part of the entire educational process. In this format, it is possible to extrapolate the theory-practice duality and break the disciplinary patterns of the actions. The question this research seeks to answer is: how can a dialogical-collaborative encounter between the university and the public school be possible through the extension program that makes it possible to expand the potentiality of the actions and the reference universe of the students involved? To find answers, it was defined as a general objective to build a cognitive ecology of extension, from a dialogical-collaborative encounter with the public school by carrying out three studies, two theoretical and one empirical. The first is a bibliographical research that reveals the production of knowledge on the theme, present in theses, dissertations and scientific articles. The second is a documentary research on the principles of extension in teacher education policies, articulating the axes that guide the initial and continuing education to the guidelines of university extension. The third, of an empirical nature, takes place on the school ground, carried out in a dialogic- collaborative perspective, with the objective of identifying the impact of the actions on the formation of the students involved. In this construction, the theoretical perspective of the epistemology of encounter, supported by Paulo Freire and Boaventura de Sousa Santos, is used. Considering the idea of a fabric, in which the threads and ends are heterogeneous, but should be seen as interconnected, we used as methodological approach the multi-referentiality, by recognizing that, in order to grasp the object, it is necessary to have a plural reading, with different angles of analysis. This movement makes it possible to assume the multipaper format. The three studies dialogue with the line of research to which this work is linked - Knowledge Diffusion, Systematization, and Knowledge Representation - and with the categories of encounter and collaboration. They are woven in an interweaving of threads and stitches and shape the fourth chapter of the research, in which a modeling will be presented in a dialogic-collaborative encounter for extension actions in the context of science and mathematics teacher training.