Abstract:

Usually, the role of universities has a special focus on quality teaching and research, in line with the training of new professionals and challenging the frontiers of knowledge. The university academic portfolio is expected to fulfill the aspirations not only of the new student communities, but also of the needs of the productive sector, guaranteeing the reduction of gaps between higher education and industry. On the other hand, the research agenda as a transfer exercise also connects university work with the resolution of complex problems in society.

However, this double commitment sometimes occurs within the institutions and remains in them. The third mission of the university that focuses on social projection, generates an urgent call so that the action of higher education institutions, the learning that is built there and the research can reach the communities that need it most and, in this way, allow universities to reconfigure themselves as large living laboratories that work hand in hand with communities to support the solution of their problems.

In this communication, we show some actions already executed and validated that show the commitment of the Universidad del Rosario, in Colombia, with rural communities or with certain population sectors traditionally marginalized or attacked by violence or poverty. These actions, mostly with a STEM focus (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), come from the same curriculum or from the research agenda and are intimately connected with the missionary function of a university that is almost 4 centuries old. Some of them have to do with the relationship between technology and rural entrepreneurship, female empowerment in STEM skills, especially that which corresponds to girls and adolescents from vulnerable communities, new teaching formats and learning for the strengthening of critical thinking and social justice in mathematics, as well as multidisciplinarity between educational sectors that traditionally did not dialogue, all this especially linked to the learning of diverse students and with interesting new readings of the world.

Keywords:

Pedagogical innovation, higher education, STEM education, social justice.