Thinking the university: a look from the popular extension

Abstract

This article is the result of a doctoral research in education, in the final phase, which has as social practice the Popular Extension in Environmental Education, developed by an extensionist group formed by seven people, six students of Environmental Engineering course, one private university of Minas Gerais/Brazil and the researcher, teacher of the same course. The theoretical reference, in this article, is linked to that of Popular Education and Popular Extension. It aims to bring a reflection around the role / social function of the university, from the popular extension, here taken as social practice. The research that gives rise to this article is qualitative-descriptive, because it exposes the characteristics of a certain population or a certain phenomenon, and it is worth, as far as the means to obtain data, of field research. The observations were recorded in field journals. To analyze the data, the content analysis was used, in which the documents analyzed were the field diaries. This article is structured as follows: besides the introductory considerations, around what will be discussed, a brief historical description of the university extension in Brazil is presented, followed by reflections on the gnosiological misconception about the term extension; popular extension as social practice; and, finally, on the role / social function of the university, from the popular extension.