Articulations between teaching, research and extension: Connecting TD and Rural Education
Plurais - Revista Multidisciplinar, Salvador, v. 8, n. 00, e023019, 2023. e-ISSN: 2177-5060
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29378/plurais.v8i00.15495 4
universities, which necessarily involved the discussion around the conception of extension
materialized in these institutions (Maciel, 2010; Gonçalves, 2015).
In these discussions, the importance of university extension for transforming
the university into an institution truly committed to social change from an
emancipatory, democratic, and popular perspective is outlined. Extension is
considered an activity that will enable the university to fulfill its social mission
(Nogueira, 2013, p. 38, our translation).
These discussions led, in 1987, to the creation of the Forum of Pro-Rectors of Extension
of Brazilian Public Higher Education Institutions (FORPROEX), which "assumed a role of
articulation and political pressure with the Ministry of Education (MEC)" (Gonçalves, 2015, p.
1233, our translation) and embraced undeniable advances in university extension in Brazil
(Paula, 2013).
Thus, the conception of extension that permeates official documents and universities in
the country has undergone changes, resulting from the political and economic situation of each
historical period experienced. We have moved from a conception with an assistance bias to an
emancipatory bias, achieving a complexity that brings with it challenges to be overcome in the
development of extension actions from this perspective.
Since 2012, FORPROEX, through the National Policy for University Extension, has
defined university extension "under the constitutional principle of the indissociability between
teaching, research, and extension, [as] an interdisciplinary, educational, cultural, scientific, and
political process that promotes transformative interaction between the University and other
sectors of society"(FORPROEX, 2012, p. 28, our translation). In this way, in addition to
advocating for effective articulation between teaching, research, and extension, FORPROEX
incorporates the conception of complexity into extension actions. It is no longer just about
educational actions that disseminate knowledge generated in the University to society (Freire,
1983), but rather about educational, cultural, scientific, and political actions resulting from
dialogue and the exchange of knowledge between the University and society. Therefore,
extension now assumes the responsibility of being the link between the University and society
to be established and maintained, forming a feedback system.
FORPROEX (2012) advanced by defining guidelines to guide university extension
actions, including Dialogical Interaction, Interdisciplinarity and Interprofessionality,
Indissociability Teaching-Research-Extension, Impact on Student Formation, and Social
Impact and Transformation. This reinforces the need for dialogue, the inseparable integration
between teaching, research, and extension, as well as the relevance of these aspects in the