Gestão estratégica das atividades de extensão no curso de Engenharia Civil/UFJF: sugestões para a implantação das ações extensionistas no curso

Abstract

This dissertation was developed on the approach of the Professional Master degree in Education Management and Assessment (PPGP) of the Public Policies and Education Assessment of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (CAEd/UFJF). The work proposed to discuss the implementation of extension actions in the Civil Engineering course at UFJF, according to the new requirements of the Ministry of Education (MEC). Extension actions at the aforementioned university are regulated by Pro-Rectory Extension, aiming to promote activities that bring university and society closer together. The MEC made the participation of undergraduate students in extension actions mandatory, establishing a minimum percentage to be complied with. Given the panorama of the extension in the Faculty of Engineering and in the Civil Engineering course at UFJF, it was found that a significant additional workload needs to be completed by December 2022 to meet the regulations. It was also found that the laboratories, which have already supported the development of extension actions at the Faculty of Engineering, will not be able to absorb all this demand. Thus, this requirement represents a great challenge for the Civil Engineering course, which needs to organize itself to meet new extension demands. Therefore, the general objective of this work is to analyze the best way to implement the strategic and integrated management of extension in the Civil Engineering course at UFJF. The specific objectives are: (1) describe the Civil Engineering course and the conduction of extension activities; (2) analyze how to meet the mandatory extension demands in the Civil Engineering course, through the implementation of a management process; and (3) proportions for implementing a strategic and integrated management process for extension actions. To achieve these goals, a qualitative research was carried out, applying questionnaires to coordinators of extension programs and projects at the Faculty of Engineering at UFJF and to members of coordinators of Civil Engineering courses at federal universities in the Southeast and South of Brazil; and also conducting interviews with the Dean of Extension at UFJF, a former coordinator of the Civil Engineering course at UFJF, a member of the NDE of the course and the Extension Coordinator of the Faculty of Administration and Accounting. In view of the results, it was observed that in the Civil Engineering courses of the surveyed universities there was no convergence on what extension is. In these courses, difficulties were identified in relation to the implementation of the extension curriculum and the management of course hours, little involvement and, at times, resistance from the teachers in relation to extension activities. In the end, an Educational Action Plan was developed, containing five propositional actions: creation of a permanent extension committee for the Civil Engineering course, holding internal extension events, creation of an extension culture, guidance of teaching work according to the Individual Plan model PIT/RIT and conducting research with students and companies that have interns. It is expected that such actions can contribute to facing the obstacles found and help the UFJF Civil Engineering course to strategically manage the extension actions, as well as including such activities in the course.