Nzolani: new-found will, knowledge and action in high education

Abstract

The goal of this article was to present theoretical-methodological instruments that we have been utilizing and (re)constructing in our solidarity activity experiences, in this case, lived in the context of a discipline called Construction of Multidisciplinary Social Projects, in University of Brasilia, from the narrative of participants of the following projects: Revitalizing Flor de Laranjeira School (in Brasilia) and Opposing Religious Intolerance (in Salvador). Qualitative research with research-action design based the practices; and narrative research based data construction for the analysis of the experiences, considered as memories someone has of a situation that impacted them. The narratives were analyzed based on dialogical thematic analysis assumptions, which generated two axes, tied to the meanings related to solidarity activities experiences: means of execution and consequences. The analysis of narratives from students showed that the formative context, generated in the discipline, affected student’s self positioning, in the sense of considering, more appropriately so, other social scopes and contexts with which they interacted, favoring the construction of professional solidarity identities. With that, we understand that innovation in extension activities consists in evoking and/or allowing the construction of preponderant collaboration positioning, that show an intentionally solidary exchanging behave, that tends to bring joy, mental health, and the feeling of fulfillment, as evidenced by students’ reports.