Curricularização da extensão: um possível caminho para a educação profissional de nível médio

Abstract

Professional and Technological Education is recognized as an educational modality that focuses on training for professional performance and it has as one of the providers the Federal Institutes, which are based on the perspective of omnilateral formation. In order to understand strategies that minimize educational dichotomies, labor and education, as well as society and school curriculum, we point out outreach/extension activities as a possible way to do that. Thus, the investigative field of this research is the professional high school education, specifically the Integrated Courses in the Federal Institute of Espírito Santo campus Nova Venécia. The Act No. 11892/2008 presents, among its purposes and characteristics, the stimulus to the inseparability of teaching, research and extension, pointing out the importance of dialogue between the Federal Institutes and society. Through a participatory research with a qualitative approach, we sought to understand teachers’ perceptions about the relevance of extension activities being inserted into the curriculum of the Secondary Education Integrated to Professional Courses and to identify strategies for their implementation. As a result, it was unanimously identified that outreach activities need to be linked to the school curriculum, so that students act as an executing team enhancing the omnilateral formation. As strategies, two alternatives were perceived, preliminarily pointing to the extension subjects, that is, to determine in the curricular organization disciplines that can address the extension in their activities, in its entirety or in a certain percentage. Another path found points to curricular credits, even though this option contradicts the current legislation. Several structural problems were identified that first need to be solved, such as extension-oriented continuing education for teachers, food and transportation structure for students to be able to extend their working hours inside the Institute and systematization of extension programs on campus, among others. The interventional proposal presented in this study proposes a roadmap organized in steps to effectively include extension activities in the integrated education curriculum. It may also be an inspiration for other educational levels. Therefore, we understand that regardless of the strategy implemented, the insertion and realization of extension activities in the school curriculum require a continuous process of staff training, structural arrangement and procedural evaluation.