The National Joint of Popular Extension (ANEPOP) brings together persons involved in the actions of university extension oriented by the theoretical and methodological framework of Popular Education (PE). It involves students, teachers, professionals and popular movements linked to these extension actions, aiming at building spaces for exchanging experiences, discussions and studies on their abilities and difficulties, and collectively build strategies to the institutionally strengthen of this strand of extension in Brazilian university setting.

By actively engaging in the process of creation and development of ANEPOP, the researchers of this study made reflections on this experience, especially about impact of this type of experience for the university education in the perspective of PE. Particular attention was directed to how the participation in building a national movement in the field of PE has enabled to develop distinct learning from those accumulated in local projects and outreach programs.

Setting the pedagogy of national movement for popular extension as a research problem, this study was developed during the course of Master of Education. Its overall purpose was to analyze the pedagogical meaning of student participation in ANEPOP organization. For this, we used qualitative research methodologies capable of grasping the pedagogical aspects inherent in this experience, in particular the systematization of experiences. Thus, we proceeded initially with the historic rescue of ANEPOP through the access of researchers to records of events and different actions and reactions arising in the process, including our personal observations, informal conversations and prying eyes. It then undertook a critical analysis focusing on revealing the teaching aspects of this experience, as well as relevant questions that it brings to the current discussion about student education and university reform.

It was observed that student learning in ANEPOP resided mainly in the improvement of their political participation and narrowing struggles with the diffusion and institutionalization of the PE, as well as communication with other regional and national experiences in the field of Popular Extension, learning about emancipatory educational methodologies in the university setting.

Experiencing ANEPOP is to see the vibrant expression of a significant number of academics and social actors dedicated to ongoing construction of the utopia of a popular university. An university with participation, freedom, humanitarian respect and democratic practices. Where PE is no longer something strange or weird. Instead, it signifies a guiding matrix and a constant source of inspiration of an institution that gives meaning to life of all people.

There is, thus, a singularity in this pedagogy, expressed markedly in the ability to enter students in areas of leadership with repercussions of national scale and with interfaces of conjuncture order. Still, it proves to promote the learning to live between different cultures and different people on a scale just a bit exercised within the framework of local extension projects.

Thus, PE is no longer merely theoretical inspiration or flag of struggle, but it’s being incorporated as an ethical and philosophical principle, as a horizon whereby these students seek to guide and lead their individual and collective actions.

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