Extension and society: necessary dialogues

Abstract

This article proposes to make an analysis of university extension, its different definitions throughout history, its role in society and its importance in the Teaching-Research and Extension triad. To this end, we established the following questions: what are the conceptions of extension built in Brazilian legislation? How do the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) contribute to the inclusion of Extension in the undergraduate curricular? In order to answer these questions, we established the objective: to highlight and value extension as a vector for dialogue with different actors in society; understand extension as one of the pillars of the university. The work is part of the qualitative research model, of a historical character focusing on the analysis of articles and documents that present the different moments experienced in the university extension. After the analysis, it is observed that university extension as public policy had different definitions and always presented a close dialogue with the community and social demands. In this context, it starts to be configured as a mandatory curricular component, denoting its importance as a vector of University-Society approach, in this aspect, the SDG can present job possibilities, allowing the insertion of urgent and necessary questions for the whole society.