Pitt's Center for Latin American Studies Awarded Fulbright-Hays Grant to Educate Middle and High School Teachers About Brazil

PITTSBURGH--Pitt's Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS), within the University Center for International Studies, has been awarded an $82,000 Fulbright-Hays grant for a teacher training program to be held at Pitt and in Brazil. With the goal of helping U.S. educators integrate Brazilian culture and history into their curricula, the project, titled "Northeastern Brazil: People, Culture, and History," will illuminate the similarities between two of the three largest countries in the Western hemisphere.

After a week-long seminar on Portuguese language and Brazilian culture at Pitt, 12 secondary school teachers from Western Pennsylvania will spend time in Olinda, in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, for further intensive training at Faculdade de Olinda. The group will then travel to Recife, in the state of Pernambuco, for field research to include working with Brazilian teachers in their schools. After that, the group will go to Salvador, also in Bahia, to study the history, music, and art of that region, as well as the martial arts-related ritual dance of the African-Brazilian performing art Capoeira.

Upon their return to the U.S., the teachers will create new Brazilian lessons that will serve as enrichment material to pre-existing secondary school courses. That curriculum will be distributed nationwide through CLAS's Web site and outreach program.

Project director and CLAS outreach coordinator Rosalind Eannarino, Nancy Estrada, professor of Hispanic languages and literatures at Pitt's Greensburg campus, Len Donaldson, curriculum consultant, and Kavin Paulraj, graduate student, Department of History, will travel to Brazil with the teachers.

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