One of the biggest challenges for higher education institutions is to make the knowledge they produce transform the lives of people in their communities. This practice, commonly known as university extension, is constantly encouraged by the University of the Itajaí Valley (UNIVALI), a member institution of UNAI in the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. The International Relations course, through a program called “International Relations in Schools” (IR in Schools), is promoting debates on international issues in high schools within the region. Such debates involve topics related to politics, economics, conflicts, cooperation and global institutions.
The program started in 2018, when then high school student Larissa dos Santos, realized the need to deepen the discussions on world news. “At the time, there was a lot of talk about critical issues in many countries and I thought I needed to understand better all that”, she says. Larissa, leader of the student union, contacted her friend Victor Ray González, a college student of international relations, and asked if he knew any professor willing to give a lecture at the school. Prof. Ricardo Bruno Boff agreed, and he gave a lecture on the most discussed topics at that time, including misinformation and disinformation, in particular during election campaigns.
“For a professor who is used to the university environment, it was a very interesting challenge to adapt the speech to a high school audience,” he said. For Victor, “it was a learning experience,” conveying what he has learned at university. The lecture was such a success that it led to a second lecture and then a formalized program. Educational materials were designed and distributed to schools in the region and international relations students were encouraged to contact their home schools and present the program.
Program participants have visited more than a dozen high schools in five different cities and the topics covered are diverse, ranging from trade wars to the current role of the UN Security Council. Some of the high school participants, like Allan Righi have later enrolled at UNIVALI. “Before, I did not know anything about international relations and now I am an IR student,” he said.
In 2020, the coordinator of the international relations course, Prof. Jorge Hector Morella Júnior, intends to increase the number of regional high schools involved in the program. In addition, permanent activities on a weekly basis are being planned and will be offered to interested high schools that have already participated. The program is directly related to Sustainable Development Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular target 4.7 on the promotion of sustainable development through, among others, education for global citizenship.