University extension in interface with the epistemologies and practices of indigenous psychology

dialogues on knowledge, territory and care in undergraduate and graduate academic training

Abstract

This article reflects on university extension in graduate studies, articulated with undergraduate education and the field of Indigenous Psychologies, based on the experience of the extension project “Honoring the roots is planting the seeds for a new reforesting,” linked to the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). The project emerged as a stage of a master's research and focused on the permanence, resistance, and appreciation of the trajectories of Indigenous students in public universities. The initiative was built collaboratively, with Indigenous leadership, and used workshops as a methodology for listening, dialogue, care, and collective strengthening. The text discusses the inseparability of teaching, research, and extension, highlighting the transformative role of extension in academic training and in the production of counter-hegemonic knowledge. The articulation with Indigenous epistemologies fostered a contextualized, ethical, and intercultural psychosocial practice, contributing to the construction of a plural psychology committed to social justice. The experience revealed the potential of extension as a political space for learning, listening, and valuing ancestral knowledge, while promoting the decolonization of academic spaces and psychological practices.