Generando capacidades locales: UNICAM, una práctica socioeducativa

Abstract

This article is the product of an investigation carried
out by the group of authors in the months of
January and March 2022 within the framework of the
"Central American Network of Research in Critical 
Extension (RECIEC)". Among the defined objectives
of the network, it was proposed to develop a regional
program of comprehensive practices and knowledge
dialogues in territories from a Critical Extension approach. This with the purpose of providing a social
response to the effects and consequences of the
current situation violated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this case, the results would become a practical tool
that would contribute to the implementation of a
regional agenda of extension/linkage/social promotion
in Central American universities for the promotion of
territoriality, risk management and local development,
prioritizing attention of the situation generated by
COVID-19. In this sense, each University immersed in
the research had to choose its field of action, which
in the case of UNAN-Managua, was the University
Program in the Countryside (UNICAM), carrying out a
field visit in the months of January and February. From
2022 to the territories of Madriz, Estelí and Matagalpa,
pioneer territories in the UNICAM issue.
The idea of this was to verify the management
proposals of the extension/linkage/social projection
from the communities and with the community
from the Critical Extension approach. Through this
extensionist experience in the territories, concepts
and contents related to Critical Extension were
concretized from an integral vision, emphasizing
the dialogue of knowledge with the actors of the
communities, the participatory construction of the
processes of intervention, development and social
change through life projects or high-impact social
enterprises, the integrality of the substantive functions
of the university and the search for the improvement
of the quality of life of the communities for the integral
management of the risk of disasters and the effects of
climate change.

In this sense, University Extension stands out as an
integral process in university education, which can be
directed to the community in particular and to society
in general, aimed at linking the university with society,
through actions that include the dissemination
and extension of humanism, everyday life, science,
technology and other manifestations of culture,
which is complemented by multidisciplinary practices
and knowledge that strengthen the construction
of an inclusive vision, which sometimes exceeds
the expected results, compared to the traditional,
where communication, dialogue of knowledge and
socio-educational practice is part of a contextualized
strategy for the search for alternatives for social
transformation and local development.