Contribuições da educação popular para uma prática pedagógica em direitos humanos na extensão universitária

Abstract

The present Final Monograph was constructed taking university extension, popular education and human rights as its central themes. Its principle goal was to analyse the contribution of popular education to a pedagogical practice of human rights. The object of analysis was the Project of University Extension, Popular Education and Human Rights coordinated by the Commission of Human Rights of the Federal University of Paraiba – UFPB, and implemented in public schools and popular districts, during the period from 1994 to 1999, in the city of João Pessoa. Carried out in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this qualitative research prioritised the focal group as its principal methodological instrument which took place online and was complemented by interviews, in addition to the use of secondary data and bibliographic sources. The subjects of the exploratory case study were three educators and the author of this study, who took part in the team which coordinated the project under analysis. In our study, we suggest that university extension as a mediator of pedagogical practices in human rights in the perspective of popular education forms a social field of struggle favourable to the interests of the popular classes. Popular education brought the educators in human rights closer to the reality of the students, obliging them to discover methodological strategies which corresponded to the context and the needs of the students. The educational practice favoured the initiation of the educators in the construction of knowledge in a collective manner, through the articulation of popular knowledge with academic knowledge. Everyone involved in the project - educators, students, volunteer extension workers and students on placement – in giving priority to popular education had the opportunity to take part in the process of constructing paths, at times making mistakes and at times being successful, but without giving up on the desire to experience a democratic methodology. In this way, these actors together with the students exchanged knowledge and learnt about and taught human rights in the perspective of popular education.