A Sharyland teacher discovered this week that she will be the Rio Grande Valley’s first representative on a historical tour of Egypt this spring with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas-Austin.
Erica Bernal, who teaches social studies at Sharyland High School, said she can’t yet imagine how her lessons on the Arab world will evolve following the 11-day trip in March.
“My students and I meld all parts – social, political, cultural, economic – into the lessons,” she said. “I can offer students that really want to delve deeper into world history an opportunity to do so.”
The UT-Austin center regularly works with Texas teachers to share the nuances of the Middle East, which Outreach Director Chris Rose said is far too often painted in black and white terms by the national media.
He hopes Bernal’s tour of Egyptian cities – among the most advanced cosmopolitan centers in history – will carry over to her students’ familiarity with the misunderstood Arab and Muslim culture.
“There’s a lot of fear that these people hate us, that they spend their days thinking about America and how to bring us down,” Rose said. “This trip demystifies the tensions and ‘otherness’ of that world and opens the doors of clarity into history lessons when she gets home.”
Bernal also received the first-ever scholarship for the trip, which aims to go beyond a tourist’s glimpse into the Middle East by combining academic panels with Nile River cruise and intimate pyramid visits.
Rose said Bernal’s mostly Hispanic students will relate particularly well to discussions of how media can easily misrepresent a minority group when debating national policy, like immigration or the war on terror.
“That’s certainly my hope too,” Bernal said. “There are a lot of misconceptions of what isn’t easily understood or the one side given in the media.
“This will enrich every class I teach every day,” she said.
