Abstract:

The aim of this theoretical study is to reflect on how predicting the behavior of Brazilian university professors can contribute to the fulfillment of their third mission. Discussions about the third mission of universities have gained international prominence since the beginning of the 21st century, especially with regard to the various concepts of this mission. In Brazil, the debate on the third mission, its institutionalization and execution has been accentuated since 2014. The main reason for the increase in this debate was the enactment of a law by the Brazilian government that obliged universities to reconstruct the pedagogical projects of courses in graduation including the third mission in their curriculum profiles. Despite the obligation, the Brazilian legislation gives autonomy to the institutions' professors about their professional practices and, so, the freedom to perform or not activities related to the third mission. For this reason the adherence to the practice of actions related to this mission is very low. Thus, it has been a great challenge for Brazilian universities to guarantee the professional autonomy of teachers and encourage them to carry out actions related to the third mission. Brazilian universities must establish measures that change the willingness of professors to carry out the third mission. One of the possibilities is to identify the behavioral predictors of the teachers that determine the intention to carry out university extension activities so that we can reflect on probable behavioral changes. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is a proposal that dialogues with this possibility since one of its main bases is the change in behavior based on the prediction of the behavioral intention of individuals. TPB assumes that before individuals carry out some actions that imply in performing a behavior, they rationally assess the available information and what are the implications of performing them. Furthermore, it determines that before the performance of a behavior there is a behavioral intention that is related to the variables attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. These variables have determinants that are called behavioral antecedents. For TPB, knowing the behavioral antecedents can promote not only the prediction of a behavior, but also, based on some interventions, its change. The possibility of modifying the behavior of teachers who do not perform third-mission actions so that they start to perform is one of the ways to reconcile their autonomy and the need for the effective execution of the third mission in Brazil.

Keywords:

Third mission, teaching behavior, brazilian universities, theory of planned behavior.