Directed recess as integration between extension, teaching and research

Abstract

This paper discusses the indissociability between extension, teaching, and research, understanding university extension as a two-way street characterized by knowledge exchange between the academy and society. We present a field study based on the development and results of an extension activity conducted at an institution that primarily cares for children from socioeconomically vulnerable backgrounds, during which we implemented directed activities for the daily recess period. The methodological steps of this field study include participatory practices with the institution’s educators in order to conceptualize the activities, participant observation on these activities, research diaries, and content analysis of this material. The objective of this study is to analyse the indisociability between extension, teaching, and research through the results of the extension activity and a theoretical framework in Science, Technology, and Society studies, and the works of Paulo Freire. This analysis points to the importance of actions that integrate teaching, research, and extension in the Univeristy, and of dialogue and commitment between the team proposing the extension activity, the institution's pedagogical team, and other people involved. Furthermore, we discuss themes such as dialoguing with the community, identifying their demands during the practice of the extension activity, and finding out how principles and values worked on by the institution with the children during didactic activities can also be applied to ludic activities during recess time.