FACES OF EXTENSION IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE FEDERAL DISTRICT: A STUDY IN LIGHT OF THE SINAES POLICY
Extension; Higher Education; Sinaes; Extension Evaluation.
This research is linked to the Public Policies and Education Management (Poge) research line of the Graduate Program in Education (PPGE) of the University of Brasília. It focuses on the materialization of extension activities in light of the policy of the National System for the Assessment of Higher Education (Sinaes), established by Law No. 10,861, of April 14, 2004 (Brazil, 2004). The objective of the research was to investigate the shaping influences of extension practices by the academic organization of private higher education institutions in the Federal District and by the Sinaes policy. The thesis of this research is that the materialization of extension, in its conception, development and assessment, is shaped by the academic organization of these institutions and by the Sinaes policy. This study used the method of historical-dialectical materialism, which allowed the understanding of reality through the analytical categories of totality, contradiction, mediation and praxis. In addition, the empirical categories adopted were: (i) assessment/regulation relationship; (ii) curricular integration; (iii) extension evaluation; and (iv) community interaction and social impacts. Data collection involved documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with leaders of three private institutions in the Federal District, each with a distinct academic organization: a university, a university center, and a college. The research found that the Sinaes policy and the academic organization of private higher education institutions in the Federal District play a shaping role in the implementation of extension activities. However, it is necessary for these institutions to advance and invest in genuinely integrated extension.