Extension curricularization

challenges and possibilities

Abstract

The paper addresses Brazilian university extension based on its legal frameworks, discussing its challenges, especially in the context of curricularization. The text highlights the importance of the historical recognition of the university extension carried out prior to the curricularization process, as well as of permanent projects and programs. For the discussion, extension is understood as a policy of critical and ethical dialogue, as well as knowledge construction between university and society. From this perspective, the paper defends an extension curricularization accompanied by a debate on its epistemology, its ethical-political foundations, and its methodologies, in which community protagonism is firmly grounded. To this end, the following question is raised: could permanent extension programs and projects serve as a support, by providing the field and experience already acquired throughout their actions, acting as a foundation to sustain and guide the curricularization process? To answer this question, it is necessary to critically analyze the university extension, its historical evolution, the debates surrounding it, and how an extension consolidated through extension programs and projects can contribute to better guiding the actions carried out within extension curricularization. The paper presents how extension projects and programs at PUC Goiás contributed to the implementation of the activities promoted by the institution’s Law program, carried out through a pilot curricularization initiative in 2022. For this purpose, the ethnographic method was employed, insofar as the actions were observed during their execution processes. This trajectory also included bibliographic research and an analysis of the regulations that comprise the evolution of extension in Brazil. Based on the actions developed by the Law program at PUC Goiás, it can be stated that the extension programs and projects already existing within the institution were fundamental for perceiving curricularization as a space for collective, critical, and emancipatory construction of knowledge.