Denaturalizing life courses: the contributions of sociology to the articulation of university functions

Abstract

This article intends to reflect on the articulation between teaching, extension and research from a specific device of the extensionist orbit known as Extension Practices of Experiential Learning, deployed by the Introduction to Sociology chair of the Bachelor’s Degree Program in Sociology of the Universidad Nacional del Litoral in the city of Santa Fe (Argentina) in 2019. To do this, it begins by recognizing the learning and tools that sociology brings to the dialogue between the university’s three substantive functions -teaching, research and extension- and draws on the emerging practices developed to show the potential of learning based on denaturalization and constant reflectivity. The project aimed to work in a denatured way on the life paths of the students at the end of the compulsory schooling stage, taking into account that they display variable routes and itineraries in theirtransition to adult life. Based on the work done, we were able to verify that the specific logics of university functions – teaching, research and extension – provided specific, irreplaceable elements that marked the course of the extension project. We understand that the continuous and reflective dialogue between the specific modes of production of knowledge of these functions is a common practice in our discipline and that at the same time sociology, due to its denaturalizing potential, could be key to the development of proposals for Comprehensive intervention on various topics, contributing from a scientific perspective to the resolution of social problems.