Certainly, population aging deserves family, civil society and State’s attention, in order to
guarantee citizenship and political and social rights in old age, aiming to dignified aging in
Brazil. However, in practice, a large part of society refuses to accept that this last cycle of life
is lived with integrity. In this respect, Education is a fundamental strategy to enhance the social
protagonism of the elderly. As a consequence of these discussions, the guiding question of this
study arises: how do socio-pedagogical practices influence the humanistic training and
politicization of the elderly at the Maturity University of the Federal University of Tocantins in
Araguaína? Based on this question, we sought a methodology to support this research. Thus,
we opted for a case study, with a qualitative scope, consisting of bibliographical, documental,
descriptive and exploratory and participatory research. This choice had the intention of knowing
the socio-pedagogical practices carried out with the UMA/Araguaína academics for the
humanistic formation and for the politicization of the elderly. To achieve this objective, a
description of the socioeconomic and demographic profile of the UMA academics in Araguaína
is presented, as well as an analysis of the political-pedagogical project of the Maturity
University Campus Araguaína. In addition, an attempt was made to explain, based on the
perception of professors, the influence of socio-pedagogical practices carried out with
UMA/Araguaína (TO) academics in the humanistic formation and politicization of the elderly.
Still, a field research in which a socioeconomic questionnaire with open and closed questions
was applied, in this way, semi-structured interviews were carried out in order to give voice to
the research protagonists. After the content analyses, approaching the phenomenology, it is
concluded that the majority of UMA students are women, retired, from the lower middle class,
who consider UMA a place that provides socialization and quality of life, as well, a space that
values the life trajectories of different elderly, especially effecting citizenship and the
promotion of protagonism in old age. In this context, it is observed that UMA is a space that
goes beyond its educational and academic dimension. It can also be said that it is a socialized
experience, which brings interpretations of aging in which knowledge is built through an
integrated perception of teaching, it should be noted, not in a fragmented way. This
understanding is based on popular education, which promotes a transaction of knowledge
aiming to emancipation, in a positive view of aging, something vital in the face of the
demographic transformations presented in the new Brazilian population pyramid. Finally, we
aspire that the reflections held here make it possible to update researchers in the area and
encourage the desire to deepen the potentialities and scientific gaps pointed out for an active
and quality aging in the Legal Amazon.
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