Extension as a frontier: connections and disconnections between the knowledge and subjects of local communities and the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Brasilia
Extension; interculturality; dialogue of knowledge; Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Brasília - IFB; local communities.
This study aimed to analyze how the extension activities of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Brasilia (IFB) constitute spaces for the dialogue of knowledge and to what extent they promote the recognition, visibility and positive valorization of local knowledge. I start from the assumption that extension is a potential frontier space of meeting and dialogue between academic and local knowledge, something that takes on central importance in the very political and pedagogical conception of the Federal Institutes. The proposal was based on a decolonial perspective, using both authors who consider themselves decolonial and those whose position I perceive as decolonial - even if they do not understand themselves as such. In this sense, the understanding of border territories and the intercultural perspective are interpretative keys to which I resort initially. The study was carried out on two IFB campuses located in administrative regions of greater vulnerability and with a history of resistance: Campus Estrutural and Campus São Sebastião. In these locations, three longer-lasting extension initiatives were identified, whose characteristics pointed to a greater propensity to constitute spaces for the recognition and positive visibility of non-academic knowledge. The research then focused on conversations with extension teachers, extension students, partner organizations and participants in the activities. Methodologically, the following strategies were used: document analysis, interviews, conversation circles, audiovisual recordings, field diaries and participant observation. This was a collaborative research project, since it sought to ensure the active participation of the various extension subjects in the course of the study. In this way, knowledge, connections and disconnections were perceived between subjects and between the institution and the local population which pointed to challenges, opportunities and advances in the dialogue of knowledge in the extension space as a frontier where local communities and IFB campuses meet.