Analysis of national programs of University Outreach in Latin America: towards Inclusion and Cultural Citizenship

Abstract

Although University Extension has historically had a prevailingly important role in the formation of the connection between University and society, its conceptualizations are diverse, ambiguous, confusing and at times contradictory; even more so are its practical executions. Therefore, its role has hardly been able to reach the same level of maturity as teaching or investigation.
The perceptions of university policies and of the activities carried out are of a particular in Latin America character because University Extension was conceived as a strong social obligation that higher learning institutions have with the communities that support them. However, many times the practice of Extension, far from sharing information or promoting dialogue, discrediting society’s knowledge and positioning the University as a hegemonic figure. For this reason, it is necessary to question the objectives, activities, actors and meaning that this function has.
This paper intends to make a comparative analysis of the national guidelines for University Extension in five Latin American countries (Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela) and identify the fundamental elements and methods of operation. These policies will be analyzed by way of cultural citizenship and democratization of access to university learning –a notion that transcends that of enlargement of enrollment– which are considered to be possible motivations for the construction of more inclusive and less hegemonic models of University Extension in the production and reproduction of social knowledge generated with and from higher learning institutions.