1 Introduction

The present study is carried out within the framework of the Thesis for the Master's Degree in Cognitive Psychology and Learning at Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) - Argentina. It attempts to understand how the subjective configuration of student participation of the Teaching Training for Primary Education course of studies at a Continuous Teacher Training Institute [Instituto de Formación Docente Continua] (IFDC) in extension activities. The research is framed in González Rey’s Theory of Subjectivity, for whom the subjectivity study demands three permanently articulated components: the Theory of Subjectivity (theoretical dimension); Qualitative Epistemology (epistemological dimension); and the Constructive - Interpretative Methodology (methodological dimension).

From the perspective of the Theory of Subjectivity, one of the teacher training’s fundamental tasks is to foster the development of subjective resources for future teachers. In practice, teachers are capable of generating innovative and creative actions only if the knowledge was subjectivated, since teachers who have a unique and motivated pedagogical practice are capable of using knowledge as a resource for the training and development of students. In practice, teachers are capable of generating innovative and creative actions only if the knowledge has been subjectivated, since teachers who have a unique and motivated pedagogical practice are capable of using knowledge as a resource for the education and development of students (MITJÁNS MARTÍNEZ; ^{GONZÁLEZ REY, 2017}).

Participation in extension activities, whether through projects or with the inclusion of the function in the curriculum of specific subjects, is a topic that has given rise to different development and research. Different consulted articles, generally agree about the power of extension practices in teacher training (^{COSCARELLI; PICCO, 2006}, ^{CAMILLONI, 2013}, ^{LOSSIO; RUBEN, 2017}). In

Argentina, ^{Wursten (2018}) points out that there is a lack of research on the extension function, independent of the systematizations of experiences or the presentation and discussion of results of certain initiatives. Regarding the inclusion of extension in the curriculum, ^{Lossio and Ruben (2017}) consider that the development of research that focuses on this topic is incipient.

Teaching work is considered the job of educating, a craft that has its own professional knowledge (ALLIAUD, 2017). In this sense, participation in extension projects can allow teaching “experiments” to be carried out. Experimenting with the profession of teaching implies that students in training can put into practice, in genuine situations, different skills that will be necessary to perform the job.

The relevance of this study is that it goes deep into how participation in extension activities of specific students, with a life story and situated in a specific context, is subjectively configured, also investigating the possible creation of subjective resources linked to the construction of the profession of teaching. For that purpose, the experience of a student who developed social-community activities in a town in the Patagonian region of Argentina is presented in an experience of inclusion of the extension in the curriculum of a subject during the second part of the year 2021 and in an extension project in 2022.

2 Background

Different research works that investigate the implication of participation in extension actions in teacher training were found. The studies that have been carried out in Spain tend to identify the extension practices as learning-service (LS). Research works that looked into the extension practices and their emotional implications were found. In that regard, Riaño Galán; Mier Pérez and Pozo Miranda (²⁰¹⁷) concluded that extension practices, in this case related to the implementation of artistic performances, generated in students capacity for reflection increase, and constructive and cooperative learning development.

Other studies, such as those by García García; Sánchez Calleja (²⁰¹⁷) and Sánchez Calleja et al. (2019), investigated the emotional competencies development (^{BISQUERRA ALZINA; PÉREZ ESCODA, 2007}) of students who participated in LS experiences, which states a more instrumental specific perspective in relation to the emotional aspect. Theory of Subjectivity considers that there is a unity in subjective processes between the symbolic and the emotional aspects, which involves a different perspective towards the view of the emotional aspect as discrete competencies. For Mitjáns Martínez and ^{González Rey (2017}), learning is a subjective production configured in a person’s life and produced in a specific socio-relational space.

Giles Girela, Trigueros Cervantes and Rivera García (²⁰¹⁹), who characterize emotions as positive, negative or ambiguous, studied the emotions experienced by teachers-to-be during the participation of LS situations, and found that students tended to experience positive emotions rather, and that negative ones were somehow transformed into positive through reflection and dialogue. However, it is considered that the fact of being named as positive or negative can create confusion by understanding negative emotions as an anomalous aspect of subjectivity without taking into account the specific situation in which the subjective senses are generated.

On the other hand, in Argentina, ^{Lossio and Ruben (2017}) point out that through extension practices, students incorporate tools to analyze and interpret aspects of the teaching task and educational institutions from the connection between theory and practice.

In addition to the reviewed studies, some of them produced from a cognitive perspective and others from a pedagogical perspective, different developments and research on teacher training from the Theory of Subjectivity perspective have been found (MITJÁNS MARTÍNEZ; ^{GONZÁLEZ REY, 2017}; MADEIRA-COELHO, ²⁰¹⁹; ^{ROSSATO, 2019}; ^{SILVA et al. 2022}). From this theory, in Brazil, ^{Yano Alves and Cunha’s study (2018}) concluded that different students’ participation in internships in an observatory contributed to initial training, since there is emphasis on learning from permanent relationship between theory and practice and teaching methodologies. Students are motivated to learn and teach, and important knowledge for teaching is developed. Unlike the mentioned research, this article focuses on the subjective configuration process of an extension practices participant.

It is observed that no investigations have been found about the subjective configuration of student involvement in extension projects during teacher training from the unfolding of the Theory of Subjectivity in our country. The intention of this research is to generate new processes of intelligibility in the field of extension and teacher training through the emphasis on subjective dimension. Thus, this investigation’s contribution to the topic is knowledge about the process by which the extension experiences of an initial teacher-training student are subjectively configured.

3 Theoretical Framework

4 Methodology

For the study of subjectivity, González Rey and Mitjáns Martínez (2015) elaborate Qualitative Epistemology and Constructive-Interpretive Methodology. Qualitative Epistemology is founded on three central principles that define the production of knowledge as a process: (1) of a constructive-interpretative nature,

with a dialogic character and (3) oriented towards the legitimation of singularity as a legitimate instance of its production.

This work presents a Continuous Teacher Training Institute student’s case study from Patagonian area of Argentina, in the course of her extension intervention, which was carried out gradually and not always constantly for more than a year. The production of information was carried out through accompaniment during the process of students’ participation in social-community activities within the framework of a course subject and in an extension project for reading encouragement.

Consistent with the foundations of the Constructive-Interpretative Methodology, the main methodological device was dialogue. In this dialogic framework, different strategies were developed such as:

An interesting matter registered from the reference framework that expresses an ethical dimension, is that interventions with people, even research, can constitute facilitating practices for subjectivity development, mainly due to their dialogic character (^{GONZÁLEZ REY; MITJÁNS MARTÍNEZ, 2017}a).

It is considered convenient to highlight that, from Constructive- Interpretative Methodology, a division between recollection processes and data analysis is not established. Theoretical and hypothetical constructions and interpretations (indicators and hypotheses) emerge as instances that develop alongside dialogue, which can foster new dialogic directions (^{GONZÁLEZ REY; MITJÁNS MARTÍNEZ, 2019}).

The research process reaches the scientific result status when the researcher, based on different partial constructions called indicators, becomes capable of assembling them into hypotheses that form a theoretical model. This theoretical model is not understood as the truth, but as the best construction to generate intelligibility about the studied problem at a given moment. The fact that it is considered the best option is not granted by the theory, but rather the interrelation of these indicators articulated within a theoretical model can become the best source of intelligibility about the studied problem in comparison with other models (^{GONZÁLEZ REY, 2019},b).

Subjective configurations and subjective senses are productions that the researcher creates in a founded manner based on hypothetical indicators that are involved in the investigation journey. They are “constellations of indicators that converge due to their meaning in the researcher's construction, and they legitimate theoretical constructions that are defined as the result of the investigation” (GONZÁLEZ REY; MITJÁNS MARTÍNEZ, 2015, p.10).

5 Information Construction

The participant of the study is Camila, who is 43 years old. she is in a relationship and she is mother of three. She belongs to the middle class. At the time the investigation was being carried out, she was not working. However, she had worked in different shops for several years. The participant entered the training institution in 2020, a time marked by social distancing due to the COVID 19 pandemic. She had not carried out face-to-face activities during the first year and a half of the course of studies.

In the second term of 2021, extension interventions and their approach were planned during the course of a face-to-face subject. Camila participated in two of them. The first intervention consisted of proposing a game space with calm music for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). In this intervention, the participant observed the children very closely before she interacted with them. In an interview after the intervention, she said:

- The first intervention was very careful. I didn’t want to “put my foot in it”.

I approached a girl I know and I took the opportunity to investigate what he is like (the boy), how close he lets someone approach. I asked his mum so as not to get closer to the boy directly. I think I chose, so to speak, the boy with milder autism because he communicated. I “measured him up” during that little moment we shared playing together. I was really scared that he could have a crisis because of something I had done…

From this section of information, the first indicator was constructed, linked to the production of subjective senses related to care and caution regarding intervention, since it was her first activity in the field of her training process and due to the characteristics of the group to which the proposal was targeted. Camila had configured a connection modality with children with certain self-demand based on this subjective production.

The second intervention was carried out in the central square of the town and consisted of proposing play corners. Camila organized a table with a Jenga game. Regarding the children who participated in this proposal, she says:

- …there I started to observe other things. To be close to them is to be close! I don’t know how to say it. At the beginning, I controlled many things about myself, for example: I always want to help, it’s something very typical of me, you know? Many times, it happens with my own kids and with people I “adopt”, so to speak. And I always want to help so that they don't feel bad, so that they don’t make mistakes in case that frustrates them. I usually intervene before that happens, and in that occasion, I controlled that a lot. One of them asked me, “Which piece should I take?”, so that the tower does not fall. First, I helped him many times, “take that one”. Then I thought, “He is not playing”, because I am telling him what to do. So I told him, “Ok, the trick is to touch it very gently and, if it’s loose, you can take it very carefully. But you have to do it yourself; I will not say or touch anything”.

From these sections of conversational dynamics, it is possible to construct an indicator that the production of subjective sensess in the participant is related to a marked attitude of care towards children, to help them and avoid potential frustration due to a mistake in the course of the game. It is related to the previous indicator, which suggests a cautious attitude in the first intervention, in anticipation of not generating a crisis in the child diagnosed with ASD. Over the course of her participation, this experience fostered a subjective change in the way Camila interacted with the children, as subjective resources where produced to favor the generation of autonomy in them. This subjective change is expressed by the difference between the initial tendency to control the course of the game (subjectively related to Camila’s story in other contexts and relationships, such as those she says she maintains with her own children), and then, by the positioning towards allowing the flow of interaction with children to enable the autonomy production in that socializing space.

On the other hand, the encounter with children in a socio-relational environment characterized by a social subjectivity where children circulate freely around the game tables generates an intense emotional charge that the participant is unable to convey with words. Learning is not carried out through instrumental and logical operations separated from subjectivity processes, but rather that learning is generated in a specific socio-relational context and based on the participant's consideration of her life story.

Another interesting aspect that emerged is that extension activities also constitute a way of observing the behavior of specific children and projecting it into future pedagogical practice. Regarding the relationship with children, this is pointed out in the following sections of information:

- You imagine it, what would have happened if I had had “the curly boy” in my classroom? I don’t know, you project, because we are everywhere in a fictitious way. We are going to see a mathematical sequence with kids, we will intervene the groups, and finally we don’t intervene. You think about what they may say, but you don’t know if that will happen… you just imagine (…) You just go on… and your head imagines. Or take little things to project, you see? I believe, and this is something we’ve talked about with my classmates, that is the greatest uncertainty: not knowing what are we going to encounter in our first time.

Besides, due to the social distancing situation, most of the planning was for groups of ideal kids, as Camila comments in another section:

-The fact of handing in sequences… the teacher told us that the proposals were “excellent”. He pointed out that they were very good proposals, but those were too many activities, and we can’t measure how many is too much for a child.

From these fragments, another indicator is constructed. The extension experiences framed in a social-community subjectivity unfold in Camila as subjective resources that will allow her to project the possible children characteristics and real work timing when carrying out pedagogical practices in the classroom. In this sense, extension practices constitute an alternative to a conception more related to artificiality in teaching, linked to these abstract plans that are not implemented. In some way, as extension practices are placed in a specific context, they imply an alternative to training related to working with concepts decontextualized from the area in which they occur (^{RAFAGHELLI, 2016}).

When asked about what she learned in those two interventions in 2021, Camila answered:

- Learning to observe. See diversity not only in books, in texts. Realizing that I could have had those three children in a classroom, and the three of them very different from one another. One of them super quick, controlling everything, knowing to wait for his turn, how to take out a piece. The other one waiting for me to tell him what to do, and the other one, anxious, getting in the middle of the other two, not waiting his turn (…) in the square I felt I was the “authority”, you know?. I was able to transfer from the text to the moment. However, I also believe that, because of the time we had already been with you, we grew up, didn’t we?

The fourth indicator produced from the previous sections is that including extension activities in the curriculum allows the participant to generate subjective learning of theoretical concepts of “diversity” and “authority” from experience. Although at that moment Camila was able to define the concept of diversity, during these instances she could subjectivize said concept from experience by specifically observing the differences between children in various aspects. This learning allowed the personalization of knowledge and the ability to use it in areas different from that in which it was learned (MITJÁNS MARTÍNEZ; ^{GONZÁLEZ REY, 2019}).

Camila can also configure from action an understanding of the concept of “authority” worked on in the curricular unit, constituting an explicit positioning in action, while the theoretical content becomes subjective resources capable of fostering extension practices.

In 2022, Camila participated in an extension project whose purpose was to offer the encouragement of community-reading spaces. Training was carried out prior to going out into the field, which consisted of addressing concepts about the extension function, the importance of fostering community reading, narration strategies, use of body and voice, and planning of extension activities to be developed. Regarding the impact of these practices, the participant expressed the following:

- I think that doing those exercises makes you relax and lose that fear of making a fool of yourself sometimes, you know? Because we are adults and it’s complicated to “make funny faces”, so we can relax facial muscles. What do I look like when I make those funny faces? And I look at the others and they are doing the same kind of faces. So I don’t feel embarrassed to expose myself and be in front of others who are watching me.

From this section of information appears an indicator of production of subjective senses that are at the base of subjective resources related to disinhibition and the possibility to approach others with more confidence in the extension project. As teaching is a job carried out in an inter-relational framework, it involves public exposure, which may occur between peers before going to the field. This entails the generation of subjective resources to confront interpersonal situations spontaneously.

In a conversational dynamic in 2022, she commented on extension interventions importance for teacher training:

- … I think that in a group of children, knowing how they react, knowing how to attract them, how to lead them to silence, to listen, are tools. So, in case something arises in the classroom, we can transfer those tools (…) Imagine, I forgot something… and the girls said “no… we have to use this…invent it”. I said, “I forgot, it doesn’t matter”, and those who are paying attention aren’t thinking that it doesn’t say that, whatever it comes out at that moment… See, if I’m in the classroom, there’s nothing written, I have to improvise!

This fragment of information indicates that the participant configures as a subjective resource the ability to continue with the narration when she forgets, that is, the possibility of improvising, which also has a correlation with the profession of teaching and its characteristic of unpredictability. It is interpreted that Camila produces subjective senses related to the importance of making changes teaching in real situations given the emerging ones that may arise. As stated previously, extension participation in a community social space allows for a customization of knowledge that represents an alternative to application-oriented positions where training implies an application of the learned knowledge. Thus, in order to be transformed into creative and situated practices, knowledge must be transformed into subjective resources.

The set of previous indicators allows the construction of the hypothesis that extension participation favors the personalization of knowledge, so that it becomes likely to be used reflexively in different areas facilitating subjective resources that allow facing the daily challenges of the teaching task.

During the interventions of the extension project, different corners of reading encouragement were provided. The extension experiences unfolded in the development of third-year pedagogical practices that the participant carried out in parallel in a school in a rural area where she participated in a multi-age room with children from fourth to seventh grade. During these practices, she was able to unfold aspects of the extension activities configured in terms of the teaching profession in the relationship with a boy and a girl in class. The child she characterized as “quiet” and “reluctant” tended not to work in class. Camila started to approach and encourage him to do school activities. In a conversational dynamic carried out just after the pedagogical practice and the extension interventions finished, she commented:

- It has always been the teacher in charge of the classroom who said, “Come on, S, come on, you’ve done nothing yet…” However, she always did so from there (the blackboard). I thought that maybe, I don’t know if it’s good for everyone but it turned out well with him, I could approach his bench and tell him the same thing the teacher was saying from there (…) I felt he changed when I approached his bench, you know? Besides, he was a boy who didn’t show any difficulties when reading and writing, you couldn’t say “no, we can see it’s hard for him…”

Camila also worked with a girl who showed learning difficulties for reading and writing. She discovered that, although the girl wrote more slowly than the rest of her classmates, it was a satisfactory resource to propose herself as her secretary to help her resolve copying activities.

Camila relates these practices with schoolchildren to subjective resources generated within the framework of extension interventions:

- Because we are near them. See, when we intervene, there are no school benches. We are always in contact. If we are going to read a story, and another child reads, I seat next to the children. So, there is a kind of need to be closer. I know that sometimes we need to be at the front, because our tool is there, we are next to the blackboard. We understand that there are moments when this is inevitable. Nevertheless, we also look for that space, in which we make the journey. We already know our students; we know who only need us to pass by their side and works ok… and there are others who need us to stop and say, “You’re doing ok, you’re almost done”. Something, because that something starts the engine. And let it begin, because it’s difficult to start. Once it's turned on, they go on.

These sections of information allow us to construct another indicator closely related to the previously constructed hypothesis, linked to the fact that the participant generated subjective senses related to teaching practice that will favor her emphasis on the quality of the relationship with students, which also unfolds in the intensification of children's motivation regarding study. The extension practices developed in a socio-relational environment of equality and horizontality with free circulation through the space, and where emotional warmth was produced, allowed Camila to transform them into subjective resources. These made her consider essential to walk around the classroom and not remain only at the front, next to the blackboard, but circulate, talk and accompany children from the benches.

6 Final Considerations

This article addressed the subjective configuration of student extension practices in terms of the development of the teaching profession and the generation of subjective resources. The importance of carrying out the study from the perspective of Theory of Subjectivity, Qualitative Epistemology and Contructive- Interpretative Methodology is highlighted (^{GONZÁLEZ REY; MITJÁNS MARTÍNEZ, 2017}a and 2019), since it allowed learning about subjective aspects linked to the implication of extension practices in teacher training. From the research process, knowledge was generated about the subjective transformations of student participation in extension activities in teacher training.

Based on the indicators and hypotheses considered in relation to the objectives of the research on the subjective effects of extension participation and training for the profession of teaching and the generation of subjective resources, the following points can be synthesized as central aspects of the theoretical model developed:

- Extension activity in a social-community context where teaching experiments are carried out allowed Camila to make changes in her relational modality configured in her life story in contexts with a familiar social subjectivity. These modifications in the way of relating to children are configured as subjective resources to carry out the teaching profession. The extension activities in community socio-relational spaces were experienced by the participant with an intense emotional burden, which had an impact on her training process (^{GONZÁLEZ REY; MITJÁNS MARTÍNEZ, 2017}a), while knowledge and the activities carried out transformed into subjective resources related to the teaching profession (ALLIAUD, 2017). Social-community extension practices are situated and allow the participant to understand theoretical concepts in an experiential way, constituting an alternative to teacher training that works with decontextualized and abstract concepts with respect to the framework in which they are produced. Thus, a personalization of knowledge was produced, which allowed that knowledge to be implemented in situations other than the circumstances where it was learned (^{GONZÁLEZ REY; MITJÁNS MARTÍNEZ, 2017a}, ²⁰¹⁹).

Extension interventions allow planning and intervening with real children giving rise to experiences located in a certain context that generate the possibility of teaching experiments, which are different from planning for ideal groups where work is done with decontextualized knowledge of specific social situations (^{RAFAGHELLI, 2016}). The interaction in environments of social subjectivity typical of social- community activities transformed the participant's configurational system providing other ways of relating with children that tended to generate autonomy in them. As extension activities occurred in a context of social-community subjectivity that does not present the explicit regulations of formal educational institutions, they generated subjective resources to foster a more horizontal interaction in the classroom, another way of arranging the space which allows individual support for students.

The information constructed in this article studied the process of subjective configuration based on the symbolic-emotional unity of human experience, unlike other research that was carried out from the perspective of emotional competencies (^{BISQUERRA ALZINA; PÉREZ ESCODA, 2007}), or those of García García, Sánchez Calleja (²⁰¹⁷) and Sánchez Calleja et al. (²⁰¹⁹). The construction of information is linked to what was expressed by Riaño Galán, Mier Pérez and Pozo Miranda (²⁰¹⁷): student extension practices favor the development of constructive and cooperative learning. It is also related to what ^{Lossio and Ruben (2017}) stated: extension practices allow participants to foster the tools that allow the analysis and interpretation of aspects of the teaching task based on the link between theory and practice.

From the perspectiva of Theory of Subjectivity, it coincides with constructions made by ^{Yano; Alves and Cunha (2018}) on the generation of teaching methodologies and development of knowledge relevant to the teaching task, but the present study focuses on the subjective transformations of the participation of a student in extension activities.

The presented theoretical model refers to the studied case, but at the same time offers a path of intelligibility regarding the subjective developments of extension practices and their importance in teacher training. This is in line with teacher training that acknowledges the value of concrete experiences, builds bonds with the community and generates alternatives to the current challenges of the teaching profession.